Dark Paradise
by CarlaPeterLove
Summary: Desire is a state not unlike hunger and It's strange what desire can make even the smartest people do.
1. Desire

**_Just the beginning of something I wrote on my long journey home today..._**

* * *

If you had of asked Carla Connor at the start of the year, _Who in Weatherfield could you see your self dating next?_ Nick Tisley would probably have been the last man she would have said and yet just months later she found herself in a rather solid relationship with him.

Gaining the affections of Nick wasn't a hard task for Carla, it was keeping them that was the problem.

It all started when she'd got back from L.A after taking a short break and after her involvement in a local bus crash.

Nick and Carla shared a bottle of wine one night and realised that they actually had a bit in common, even if those things in common were the fact that they were thier exes exes.

From that night on, Carla and Nick spent more and more time together.

They would chat, they would flirt, things really seemed as if they were going somewhere and then one day an old flame of Nick's turned up and gave him the shock of his life.

To put it finely Nick now had a pregnant old flame and because Nick was a decent and loyal man, he made the right decision to get with this woman and stand by her during her pregnancy.

Carla accepted this decision of Nick's, after a long line of devious men in her life, Carla was just thankful to have a decent guy like Nick around... Even if he did have a new woman.

Sadly this woman, whose name was Erica by the way, suffered from a miscarriage and instead of finding comfort in Erica, Nick found it in Carla and even though Nick knew that he fancied the pants off that loud knicker factory boss who lived below him, he still made the noble decision to stick by Erica.

Well it was noble until one night, Carla was having a particularly rough time and Nick couldn't hide his desire no more, he went round to Carla's and professed his feelings for her and the rest as they say is history... but this story doesn't stop there.

Nick was still supposed to be with Erica and Erica wasn't a fool, she was sassy and smart and she knew that the man she was currently with had feelings for another, so she ended it just like that and Nick and Carla soon found themselves both single at last.

They got together, they just had to really, they had nothing stopping them now, after months of flirting and being there for each other they finally sealed the deal and became a couple.

When you live in a place like Weatherfield, you'll find that good news travels fast and gossip? Well that travels even faster.

Everyone was shocked when they found out about the street's newest power couple and of course everyone had their own opinion on the matter but Carla and Nick didn't care what everyone thought of them, they were happy and that's all that mattered but once again, this story doesn't stop there.

One night in late September, Carla was in her local pub and seeing as she hadn't seen her boyfriend for a good few days now, she was in desperate need for some attention from him.

Carla had made her intentions clear to Nick when she phoned him at around Eleven o clock. She didn't want to talk or listen to anything he had to say. She didn't want a shoulder to cry on or someone to watch movies with, not tonight anyway.

All she wanted was the pleasure of Nick's lips against hers, for them to go to bed together and stay there until morning but Nick stupidly said that he was at work and that he'd try his hardest to get out of there early.

Nick trying to leave work early just wasn't good enough for Carla.

She was selfish and She wanted him now. She wanted him to just walk out of that stupid little restaurant of his, she wanted him to come and get her. She wanted him to take her to bed and make her forget the world.

They'd not been together for long, only a few months in fact and Carla would have been lying if she'd said that she wasn't surprised at just how good Nick was in bed.

Now it wasn't as if she thought that Nick would have been bad in bed but the way he was such a tender lover and still managed to make her feel so incredible, came as a big shock to Carla. She soon found her self addicted to Nick and would often be sat at work or at home, craving his gentle yet very effective touch.

Carla craved it right now, right this second in fact and she wasn't sure how much longer she could sit in the pub with her best friend Michelle and pretend otherwise.

As Carla began the short walk from the pub to her home, the streets were empty and cold but something about tonight made her excited, she felt like something big was going to happen and it would be something that she'd never forget...

The moon was full and the only sounds that she could hear, where the ones that her high heels were making against the cobbles and then suddenly, she heard the sounds of something behind her.

Carla stopped dead in her tracks and tried to listen to the noise that had been coming from somewhere behind her.

She couldn't hear the noise anymore and for a second she wondered if she had imagined it or not.

Carla sighed as she couldn't even blame her confusion on the amount of wine she'd had because she'd only had the one glass.

It wasn't long before Carla realised that the noise behind her had stopped, because she had stopped.

Her heart was beginning to pound as she decided to test the waters a little, she walked forward and there was that noise again. She grinned, knowing that the sound was definitely the sound of footprints.

Normally Carla would have been scared, but her heightened sense of desire and excitement was telling her not to be.

This was the something that Carla had been expecting.

This was something that Nick did very often, he'd tell her he was busy with work or that he was somewhere else when really, he was just waiting there to surprise her outside their building.

Carla was still grinning to herself as she kept looking forward and sauntered across the dark and lonely street.

After a difficult summer, Carla was almost back to her old self. Nick had made her feel wanted again, he made her feel confident and he was the only one who'd got her feeling even close to the way that she used to feel.

Carla listened closely as she got to the other side of the street, she definitely recognised those footprints, they were the heavy footsteps of someone very familiar.

Carla felt a rush of excitement as the footsteps behind her got nearer and nearer. She waited until she had got outside their building, she waited until she felt the touch of his gentle hand on her shoulder and then she turned around.

Carla had been lusting after sex all day and she just wasn't going to wait anymore, She didn't even look to check that it was Nick in front of her, she just knew.

She closed her eyes, threw a hand around his neck and wildly crashed her lips into his.

She let her tongue roam free into his mouth and welcomed the familiar feeling of his wet lips against hers… But then something changed.

Something was definitely different.

In any normal situation, any normal person would have backed the hell away and stopped kissing the person that obviously wasn't their other half but Carla didn't, something made her lips stay right where they were.

It was almost a surreal experience, Carla wasn't sure if she was maybe dreaming or not, she couldn't tell anymore, reality had gone out of the window and she truly didn't care.

Something had seemed to take complete and utter control of Carla's body and she was totally powerless to stop it.

Carla soon realised that the rough stubble that she could normally feel when kissing Nick was replaced by a beard, not a full, thick beard but a beard none the less.

Carla realised that the hair that she had her hands in, was thick and a lot longer than Nick's was at the moment and those lips that she was kissing...

Those lips that were moving in complete and utter sync with hers, they were so soft, so different to Nick's and yet they were so damn familiar.

Carla knew that what ever was happening to her right now was odd and as her body was forcefully pushed up against the wall that was just outside of Victoria Court, she knew that this wasn't Nick kissing her.

If Carla had been honest with herself she knew this from the moment that her lips touched his, she knew it from how he managed to almost knock her right off her feet, even though she had been the one to initiate the kiss.

So why didn't she stop it straight away? Why did she allow the kiss to intensify so much? Why did she let this tongue slide into her mouth?

This kiss had already contaminated her lips, there was no going back now.

That's why.

The damage was already done.

As the cold winds picked up and as Carla felt a hand go through her long hair, She knew that she had to stop this, she had to stop before someone saw what she was doing.

It was hardly dignified, Carla being pushed up against the wall outside her building and tongue kissing a man that was definitely not her boyfriend and yet the thrill of the situation made her continue in this totally forbidden embrace.

Carla knew that once she opened her eyes, once she made herself completely aware of who she was kissing and once she pushed him away from her in false disgust, she knew that she'd never get this deliciously dangerous moment back.

As wrong and as criminal as it was to do so, Carla told herself that as she'd already gone this far, there really would be no harm in allowing her self to devour the taste of this deadly kiss for just that little bit longer.

Carla imagined what Nick would do if he knew what she was doing.

What if he really was coming home for her, right now? What if he saw this?

He'd be heartbroken, he hate Carla and he'd hate the man who had her up against the wall even more.

He'd be so disappointed, he'd pull that face that she couldn't bare on him, the one he'd give her when she'd had one too many or when she'd said something that she probably shouldn't have but this isn't about the very few but quite distinct problems that Carla and Nick had, this was about what is happening right now and right now, Nick's broken little face was a horrifying image, one that forced Carla to come to her senses, to listen to her head instead of her stimulated and extra sensitive body.

With one last dangerous twist of her tongue and one swift push, the stolen kiss was over.

The moment was gone.

As Carla opened her bright green eyes, reality had come crashing back and so had Peter.

* * *

 ** _Continue or nah?_**

 ** _Let me know in a review_**.


	2. Like a Moth To a Flame

"What the hell are you doing?" Carla shouted at Peter.

She was so angry but not at him more at herself for being so reckless.

How could she have let herself kiss him like that? and why didn't she have to sense to stop it from the moment that she knew it wasn't Nick?

Carla inhaled a deep breath and sincerely hoped that her senses would come back to her.

"What the hell am I doing? You're the one that kissed me sweetheart." Peter said. He was stood in a leather jacket a blue jeans, he was rather tanned given the fact he'd just flew back from the Caribbean. His hair was shorter than the last time he'd visited the street but, he still had his trademark beard that Carla had loved on him and his dark brown eyes were permanently focused on her. She shook her head in actual disbelief that any of this was happening but she stayed with her back pressed firmly against the wall behind her. "It was a nice welcome home all the same though."

"It wasn't meant to be a welcome home, I thought you were Nick." Carla said with a slight smirk. She watched him, she watched her cheating husband take in the news that she was now with his old rival and she waited with excited anticipation to see what Peter would say.

She waited for a reaction. She desperately wanted a reaction. She wanted him to hurt and maybe even cry.

"Nick?" He breathed, he was trying his very best not to look like he was affected by what she had just said but the images that were now running through his mind were tormenting him to no end. "And… why on earth would you be kissing Nick?"

"Well why not?" Carla grinned. She ran her pointy tongue over her bottom lip and stared Peter down confidently, enjoying this to no end.

Peter had two options…

One: Go and rip Nick's head off his shoulders for having the nerve to even go near Carla, or...

Two: Stay and pretend like he didn't give a toss about Nick.

He went for the latter option, mainly because he couldn't bare to walk away from Carla as she was looking absolutely stunning tonight and the mere sight of her almost made him twitch down below. She was dressed in a skin-tight black dress and a leather jacket. Her toned legs were bare and her hair was loose, flowing freely around her shoulders, her smouldering eyes were outlined in black as she stood before him and Peter took one last look up and down before speaking again.

"So is Nick your new bloke then?" He asked casually, still stood right in front of Carla, only inches away from her in fact.

Dangerously close and dangerously sexy.

"He sure is." Carla said smugly. She hoped that it hurt Peter when she said that, she really did, but Peter just let out a silent laugh and said,

"And I thought you couldn't sink any lower than me."

Wait a minute… was Peter really pretending that he was a better man than Nick? He had a lot of nerve, Carla would give him that.

She almost laughed at him but she couldn't quite do it because as he was lingering about in front of her, she guiltily remembered just how damn attractive she found him.

If there was one good thing about the fire in Carla's flat then it was the fact that she now had no photos of Peter what so ever.

Not one single photograph, not their wedding photo, no photo's from their holidays. Nothing.

Just like their relationship, all her photos had perished, so even if she had wanted to have a sneaky look at a picture of Peter she couldn't have.

It wasn't that Carla had forgotten what Peter looked like, it was more that she'd forgotten the hold that the man had on her, she almost forgotten that back in their relationship all he'd have to say was jump and she'd ask "How high?"

As she looked at his face, his arms, his legs, his entire stance, Carla knew that whilst Peter was emotionally flawed in many ways, his physical appearance still made her feel weak.

"Nick is a much better man than you…" Carla began confidently, but her confidence was short lived as Peter raised his eyebrows at her and put his head on one side.

"Is he now?" he said, almost mocking her.

"Yeah…" Carla replied but then she stopped as Peter grinned smugly at her, "What?"

"Oh do continue…" He said, "Tell me how Nick is better than me…" Carla rolled her eyes and tried to not be affected by how close Peter was stood. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, to see if anyone was nearby, to see if anyone could save her from this impossible situation but there was no one to be seen.

How did this happen? A second ago she was the smug one, she was enjoying flaunting the fact that she was with Nick in Peter's face and now she was feeling like an idiot, now she felt as if she needed actual help and fast.

Peter on the other hand was looking directly at Carla, She looked so angry, so enticing and so incredibly sexy that Peter bit down hard his lip just so he didn't lunge forward and senselessly kiss her again.

"I don't ave to tell you anythin, all you need to know is that I'm happy." Carla insisted but she had insisted it a little too much because all she got from Peter was another smirk.

"Is that so?" He said, His cockiness scarily alluring, making Carla feel seriously unsafe to be around him.

It wasn't Peter that she didn't trust… It was herself.

It was how horny she'd become over the course of the evening whilst lusting after Nick. It was the fact that even though she had a loving boyfriend like Nick, that she just couldn't keep her mind from imagining what it would be like for Peter to push her up against that wall again.

"Yeah it is, so let go of me." Carla said. She wanted those few words to have come out all firm and assertive but they still came out wobbly, almost nervous in fact.

Peter looked down at his chest and then back up at Carla with another smirk.

"I hate to break it to you darlin but you're the one who's got hold of me." Carla quickly looked down at her hands, which were both tightly grasped on to his leather jacket of their own accord.

Peter had been watching Carla closely since the moment they'd stopped kissing, he'd noticed how her breathing was becoming more and erratic as they spoke, that every time she finished a sentence she'd take a deep breath, like she needed to get some air.

He'd noticed how engaged Carla's pupils were and he'd also noticed the look of lust buried deep beneath those green eyes of hers.

These things that he had noticed were all tell tale signs of one thing, one thing that he was more than used to assisting Carla with.

Carla was horny and she knew by the amused look on Peter's face that he knew just how sexually frustrated she was.

She hated... detested... couldn't stand it how easily this man could work her out and yet here she was, still clutching onto him for dear life.

"Move." She said pushing right past him and walking towards her door.

"So I'm guessing this is where you live?" He said, watching Carla as she fumbled around in her bag to find her keys.

"Oooh there are no flies on you are there Peter?" Carla sarcastically called out, she finally found her keys buried amongst the endless crap she kept in her bag and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Thank god she was almost away from him.

Almost.

"Doesn't Nick live in ere too?" Peter asked, Carla rolled her eyes at him and said,

"Yes. Yes he does and you better go because he not going to be happy if he sees you ere." Carla hadn't meant it to sound so threatening because she knew that that had also made it sound totally pathetic.

"Oooh I'm so scared." Peter said as Carla opened the door to her building.

She should have just gone straight into the building and left Peter there but it was like there was a huge magnet in between her and him and she quickly found herself turning back around.

She was drawn to him, like a moth to a flame and the worst part of it all was that she had already been burnt by this particular flame once before.

"What are you even doing ere? What happened to Antigua?"

"Who told you about Antigua?"

"Simon, now answer the question."

"I don't have to tell you anything." Peter replied still smirking and still unable to refrain from taking his eyes off Carla, who just didn't know what to do, she felt like she desperately needed to know why he was back, why he'd come and approached her when he didn't bother the last time he was in Weatherfield and she also wanted to know why he was slowly but surely closing the gap that was in between them.

"Y'know what Peter…" Carla sighed, "I don't know why on earth you are ere, In fact I don't even know why I'm still ere talking to you and I sure as hell don't know why I kissed you but what I do know, is that it was a mistake. You can't just show up here uninvited like this… I'm in a relationship now, I'm happy… Nick keeps me happy."

"Yeah so you said earlier…" Peter whispers, "Nick may keep you happy… But does he keep you satisfied?" Peter knew he was pushing it, he knew he was crossing the line but what Peter knew the most of all was that he truly didn't care.

"That…" Carla breathed, still letting her increasing desire for some physical interaction show, "Is none of your business."

Peter chuckled arrogantly and raised an eyebrow at Carla's response to his question.

"I'll take that as a no then." He said smugly.

"No, you should take that for what it is… None of your business." Carla said and she didn't know it at the time but she was now back where she had started, with her body pressed up against the wall behind her. "But just so you know… Nick keeps me more than satisfied." Carla felt like she had to add that last bit, it was only right, she had to at least stick up for Nick a little bit.

Peter still looked unconvinced, he moved even nearer to Carla and she pushed a hand against him to stop him from getting any closer.

"That's funny… You don't look satisfied." Peter said because even after all this time away from Carla, he knew just how turned on she was.

"Move." Carla said firmly.

"Once again… You're the one who has hold of me." Peter chuckled again and looked down at the grip that she once again had on him. She let go of him as he continued to speak. "Carla let's not forget me and you were married, still are married in fact… I know when you are sad, happy, scared and I know when you're in need… of a good… hard shag."

Peter's words sent another guilty thrill up Carla's spine.

She still hated him though. She hated him for knowing her so well and she really did try to make him think like she had changed, that her desires had changed. She was trying her hardest to remain strong and confident but her body trembled and the bottom half of it seemed to have a mind of its own because her hips were almost pushing them self forwards… towards Peter.

As her body continued to disobey her mind, Carla wondered if any of this truly was happening because she really didn't feel like herself right now, she felt enchanted, be-witched and completely under Peter Barlow's control.

He didn't seem quite like his normal self either, everything about him was enhanced, the brown in his eyes, his sexy smirk, his whole demeanour was just that little bit more confident, it was as if Peter was some sort of supernatural version of himself, one that Carla was ridiculously attracted to.

Surely this had to be some sort of twisted dream, surely he hadn't actually come back and Carla was sure that she would wake up in her bed any moment now.

"You don't know anything… You haven't been ere, you don't know me anymore Peter." She said.

"Oh come on Carla…" Peter breathed, "I'm the only one ere who knows you." He didn't even give Carla a chance to reply to him this time.

It was an exceptionally filthy kiss, the kind of kiss where Carla could almost taste the intentions that he had for her. He slid his tongue in her mouth but just for a second and then pulled it away, leaving her aching for more.

"I know every single... inch… of this body…" Peter said, gazing down at the thin black dress that seemed to be the only thing that was keeping him from touching Carla's soft skin. "And I know that it is just begging… for me to show it a good time." He brushed a finger across one of Carla's cheeks and then said, "but if Nick keeps you so satisfied then I'll leave you be..."

"Don't…" Carla said exasperatedly, her heart was pounding and even though she knew that this whole situation was wrong she still took hold of his jacket and said, "Don't you dare start something unless you're going to finish it." Peter stared deep into Carla's eyes and licked his lips. "I'm serious Peter… If you walk away from me right now… Don't you ever come back."

"Isn't that what you want?" Peter asked, "for me to never come back?" He stared at Carla intensely and still had a hand tucked behind her ear. Carla refused to answer him, she didn't want to be the one to admit anything real like that, she didn't want to betray Nick but then again... she also didn't want to see Peter go.

Peter on the other hand didn't want to do anything without Carla's say so, he wanted her to want him and want him bad. She didn't answer his question so he decided to see what she would do if he walked away from her.

It was a risk.

It was a risk because Peter was beginning to think that maybe Carla had changed after all, maybe he was reading all her signals wrong and maybe she really didn't want him after all, maybe him walking away from her like this was the end.

Walking away was a risk worth taking because at the sight of him leaving, Carla then called out after him...


	3. Only For Tonight

"Coward."

That was it.

No one calls Peter Barlow a coward, especially not Carla Connor.

She had already turned around when Peter changed direction and snaked an arm around her, from behind.

There was no way he was going to let her walk away from him without a fight... not that Carla showed any signs of resistance as he pulled her towards him.

Instead she actually let out an excited groan as he kissed her roughly on the neck.

"Is this you finishing what you started then?" Carla gasped as Peter left wet kisses on the most sensitive part of her neck.

"Open that door… Now."

Carla didn't dare to disobey Peter, whose lips had moved from her neck, to just below her earlobe.

This particular action had an overwhelming affect, on Carla as she clumsily opened the door to Victoria Court.

How they got upstairs is a blur but somehow they made it to the second floor of the building. They stumbled down the hallway and Carla could feel Peter's ever-growing hunger for her as she stuck her key into her front door.

As soon as they were behind closed doors, Peter turned Carla around and kissed her again on her lips. He yanked her leather jacket off her body within seconds and vice versa.

"This... Is… So wrong." Carla said in between illicit kisses and forbidden touches.

"Is it now…" Peter breathed his hands running down her back and over her behind.

"Yeah… I mean… I really... don't want to be doing this…" Carla said their tongues continued to roam in and out of each other's mouths. Peter let out an complacent laugh and then said,

"Is that so? Then how come it's _your_ hand, down _my_ jeans?"

"Shut up Peter." Carla said as they moved deeper into her flat. "I don't want to talk."

"Fine by me." Peter said hitching Carla's dress up and pushing her hard against her kitchen counter.

"I still hate you." Carla said as her red lacy knickers were being hastily pulled right down.

"Yeah well…" Peter said, getting down onto the ground and taking Carla's underwear right off. "There's a thin line between love and hate."

"Love?" Carla said bitterly as Peter stayed put, on the ground and on his knees.

Did Peter actually just mention the world love? This wasn't about love... was it?

"Oh don't you dare go thinking that this is about anything other then sex Peter Barlow." Carla said scathingly.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Peter breathed, "But don't you dare tell me that you love that poncy restaurant owner." he said looking up at Carla from her kitchen floor. At first he was smirking but then the realisation that Carla could very well be in love with another man suddenly became all too real and all too frightening for Peter to cope with. "You…don't love him do you?"

Carla paused. She had never even thought about loving Nick before now and to be thinking about it for the first time just as another man had removed her underwear was completely inappropriate. Peter was now kissing her legs, making his way up her body very slowly and as she felt a euphoric wave of pleasure flow through her body, it became very clear to Carla that she didn't love Nick... not properly.

If she did love Nick she wouldn't have let Peter do what he was currently doing, she wouldn't have let him pleasure her right there in her kitchen, a kitchen where she and Nick had shared many pleasant breakfasts and many romantic nights in.

"You didn't answer my question…" Peter said abruptly stopping what he was doing to Carla and waiting with bated breath for an answer.

"Wh… What question?" Carla stammered, unable to think of anything else but the wonderful yet aching feeling that Peter had just left all over the bottom half of her body. She could barley stand up straight now and as Peter waited for her to speak, he got up from the floor and said a very straightforward,

"Do you love him?"

It was a straight forward question for Peter anyway... not so much for Carla.

After thinking about it for another second or so, she decided that she didn't love Nick, god knows she really wanted to love him though. Nick was the easy option. The safe option. He was kind and he was decent but suddenly it seemed like decent just wasn't enough for Carla anymore.

She should have seen it coming right from the start really. Other than Liam, Carla always had a taste for the older guy, the bad guy, especially the one who always had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and as much as she adored Nick, now that Peter was back in her life so suddenly all she could think about was helping him find his way back into her bed.

"I don't want to talk about Nick… I don't want to talk at all." Carla said trembling and wishing that Peter hadn't of got up off the floor, she desperately wanted him to continue with what he was doing and was still finding it hard to stand up. She was thankful that the kitchen counter was behind her, keeping her steady and standing upright.

She hoped Peter would shut up now. Talking made her feel guilty and guilty wasn't something that she wanted to feel tonight.

"Fine…" Peter nodded, he then paused and gazed around Carla's flat, which she still hadn't decorated properly since the fire. "What do _you_ want to do?"

What a question.

Carla looked Peter up and down for a moment. His breathing was harsh, his teeth sunk into his bottom lip, he was clearly just as aroused as she was and the energy between them was so powerful that neither one of them could stop themselves from reaching out and taking hold of each other, Carla had a tight first gripping part of Peter's top whilst he had a hand placed on her hip and began stroking it softly.

Carla contemplated telling Peter to leave... but only for a second. She couldn't fight her urges for a moment longer. She couldn't fight it even if she wanted to, so she slowly began pulling him towards her bedroom by his T-Shirt.

He obeyed her movements and walked as she took control of the situation, she kissed him roughly as they staggered closer to her room and once inside, she pushed him onto her bed with one hard shove.

"One night." Carla said as she closed her bedroom door behind her. Peter nodded at her in awe as she bent down and took off her high heels. Then she grazed her lip with her teeth, leant forward and began yanking his jeans off.

"One night." Peter nodded again as Carla threw his jeans on the floor, followed by his boxers. She took a moment to welcome the delicious sight of a half naked Peter before her and then climbed on top of him.

They kissed hungrily again, letting their tongues explore each other's mouths, Peter sat up right again and pulled Carla with him, so that she was now sat on his lap with her legs either side of his. He gently pushed himself up against her body, the friction between them made Carla take a sudden and sharp breath.

Peter was barley doing anything and yet Carla was already failing to contain her desire for him, she ran a hand under his T-Shirt and was now stroking his chest.

"You sure you only want one night of this?" Peter asked as Carla rolled her hips towards him impatiently.

"Absolutely." Carla nodded although from the amount of pleasure she was receiving just from being sat on Peter's lap, she was sure that she could do this every single night.

She really didn't want to cheat on Nick but Peter just had a hold on her and it was one that she just couldn't shake off, not now and not ever by the looks of things and anyway, it was way too late to turn back now.

"Hmmm" Peter said as he kissed her on the neck again, "Why don't I believe you?" He asked as he took both hands and began pulling Carla's dress up and over her body. The higher her dress got, the more places that Peter placed a kiss, each kiss was different in pressure and in the way he let his tongue slid over her skin. Carla ran her free hand right through his hair and then as Peter kissed a particularly sensitive spot, she gasped and tightened her grip his hair.

Peter groaned out loud and then before Carla knew it, her dressed had been pulled right off and she had been flipped onto her back.

He was back in control and Carla looked up at him in shock as, being put on her back so suddenly had taken her by surprise.

As bad as it made her feel, Carla wasn't ashamed to admit to herself that she hadn't been this turned on since way before Nick.

It wasn't his fault, he just had his way in bed and Peter had his.

Carla told herself that no matter how mind blowing it was with Peter tonight, it was still only going to be for tonight and tonight only.

She didn't want to this to turn into some trashy affair and she definitely didn't want to get back with Peter…

One night with the best she'd ever had was all that she was going to allow herself.

"I'm serious Peter…" Carla said as he pulled his black T-Shirt off and threw it across her bedroom. "I mean it… This is only happening tonight. I want to wake up in the morning and go to work like this never happened." Peter smirked at Carla and positioned himself so that he was ready to completely take control of her body.

"Work?" Peter scoffed, "Trust me Carla… When I'm done with you, you won't even know where work is." He promised.

He was more than ready for what was about to happen and judging by Carla's reaction to what he had just said, so was she but he still didn't close the tiny space that was in between them.

Just to torture Carla a little bit more he lingered above her, he just waited there and watched her struggle to keep a steady breathing pace, she arched her back impatiently and wrapped a hand around Peter's neck.

"What are you waiting for?" She moaned, breathing rigidly and almost digging her nails into his neck, she could barley control herself and they hadn't even done much yet. Carla found that her body was reacting in ways that she had never felt before and this was just from the anticipation of what Peter might do next.

"Tell me you love me." Peter said.

"What?" Carla exhaled, that was the last thing that she was expecting him to have said and it threw her.

She had wanted tonight to be meaningless, to just about the sex but she was starting to see that it wasn't going to be that easy.

She found her self, looking deep into those big brown eyes of Peter's and dreaming of a slightly dysfunctional future with him and now here he was, asking her to declare her love to him.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

"I said tell me you love me… Only for tonight..." Peter insisted, bending forward and placing a energising kiss on Carla's collar-bone, she arched her back again as she felt him leave more kisses and then he reached around and unhooked her bra, just like that.

He threw it behind him and went back to leaving impassioned kisses on her chest.

Any more thoughts that Carla had about Nick Tilsley, had gone right out of the window by this point.

Peter increased the pressure of his lips and was thrilled to have the feeling of Carla's hand in his hair again. As he took his kisses even further down her torso he felt Carla pull on his hair tightly. "Say it Carla…" Peter said, his kisses moving down and onto Carla's flat stomach.

"I said I didn't want to talk, Peter." Carla half moaned as with each kiss, Peter got lower but the pressure increased.

"And I said tell me that you love me." Peter groaned, making Carla gasp for air as he started using his fingers instead of his kisses.

"Oh god!" Carla cried and rather loudly at that.

Every single thing that Peter did to her felt perfect. He obviously hadn't forgotten what she liked in the bedroom and was thoroughly enjoying every single noise that he produced from her body.

Her hands were still buried deep in his hair and just as she felt like she was going to burst, the pleasure suddenly stopped. Her eyes shot open as Peter made his way back up her body, he breathed out and looked right into her eyes.

"Say it… even if you don't mean it… I just want to hear you say it." Peter whispered,

"Peter…" Carla began but she couldn't quite finish her sentence, she wanted to beg him to just get on with it, to stop teasing her and put an end to the very small but almost unbearable space between the lower parts of their bodies.

Peter just licked his lips and ran a finger down her body and then back up again. He'd been her boyfriend/husband for long enough to know exactly what she wanted and what she wanted right now was for him to stop playing these games and give her all that he had.

"Peter… please… stop it… just fuck me." Carla begged, her profanity sending a thrill right through Peter's body. He always loved it when she swore, especially in the bedroom and it was all he could do not to give Carla what she wanted, but he wanted to hear those three words more.

"Say it…" Peter said and he very slowly started to send small but powerful waves of pleasure through Carla's body, he was relentless and didn't give up until Carla couldn't take it any more and almost screamed.

"I love you!"

That was all he needed to hear from her and didn't even give her a chance to catch her breath before kissing her again.

The moment he entered her body, Carla knew that this probably wouldn't be a one-night thing.

She almost couldn't think straight as Peter continued to show her just what she had been missing all this time she'd been with Nick.

With each thrust Peter was totally relishing the effect he was having on Carla and as she writhed underneath him he took even more pleasure in asking,

"Is Nick still better than me?"

As Peter smirked down at her, Carla couldn't even begin pretend that she found this extreme cockiness that he had, unattractive.

"What did I say about talking?" Carla panted as Peter upped his game and thrusted even harder.

"Is… Nick better than me… answer me." Peter asked her again. Carla tried not to answer him and just enjoy the moment but of course he knew exactly what he was doing and kept asking Carla, she ignored him at first but she had an idea of what was coming and sure enough Peter stopped moving until she answered him.

"No…" She panted breathlessly when she wasn't able to wait any longer, when she wasn't able to lie anymore. Her brain was hooked on Peter and it was almost as if he controlled everything, from her mind right down to her body. "Happy now?"

"Hell yes." Peter grinned smugly.

"Good" Carla breathed reaching around Peter and grabbing hold of one of his bum cheeks and making him chuckle. "Now… where were we?"

They didn't just have sex once, they had sex three times and the only reason they probably didn't go for a fourth was because they were both completely shattered.

Each time was accompanied by promises. Promises that what was happening was only going to be a one night thing. Promises that whenever Peter left her flat, then that it would be the end of it.

Carla told Peter that she'd never completely trust him again and Peter told Carla that he was way too messed up to even think about getting back together with her.

Normally Carla would have been wondering what on earth Peter meant by that comment but it was long before they were both preoccupied.

They didn't speak again after that, well apart from more promises that they would only do this one more time.

Carla doesn't even remember how they fell asleep but she woke up, butt naked on her side and to find an empty space next to her, she sat up and took a look around.

Her black dress and red bra were in a heap on the floor, the bed sheets were completely wrecked and when Carla got up and off her bed she took a look in the mirror.

It was almost if she saw a difference person looking back. It was the reflection of a cheater a satisfied cheater but a cheater none the less.

She had dark circles under her eyes due to the fact that she hadn't even bothered to take off her make up last night.

Taking off her make up, was a ritual that Carla practised every night before going to bed but now it seemed like she had a new religion… and a bad one at that.

Peter had fulfilled very single desire that she'd had and more and as Carla looked around her empty bedroom, she was more than annoyed to see that he had obviously scarpered.

If he had even been there in the first place that is, after all last night had really seemed like some sort of wicked dream and as Carla tried to piece together all of the events that had gone on, she still couldn't be sure that it wasn't a dream.

It wasn't a dream though and here's how Carla knew... after getting dressed and storming furiously into her living room, she saw a piece of paper on her kitchen counter. She knew for sure that it wasn't there last night and rushed over to read what it said.

 _Carla_

 _Now you know that I'm not the type of man to just walk out on a woman after spending the night with her but as we were both so determined that it was only going to be a one-night thing I thought it would be better that I was gone by the time you wake up._

 _I wont bore you with the details of why I came back… just know that last night was not planned by any means. I had no intentions of it happening but now that it has I have to say I won't be able to forget it and who knows maybe one day soon, I'll be back for more._

 _I'm glad that you are happy, I truly am but I'll be honest with you, I hope that the next time your having sex with Nick… I hope you realise that he doesn't make you moan as loud as I did, that he doesn't make you scream as loud as I did and that he is actually nothing compared to me._

 _Don't be mad at yourself for cheating on him._

 _Blame me._

 _I obviously made you set the bar so high that no one could even come close to making you feel the way that I do._

 _Peter._

 _P.S. Thanks for telling me that you loved me, it was amazing to hear even if it was just for one night._

"Cocky son of a bitch." Carla muttered to herself as she indignantly scrunched up the piece of paper and threw it across her kitchen.

She stood aimlessly for a while, trying to comprehend everything that Peter had written and then there was a knock on her door...


	4. Mirrors

_**Reviewers... I love you all.**_

 _ **Oh and also a few people have been suggesting I use Twitter for my stories, so I made one, it's xglitteredeyesx (I had to add the x's because someone who hasn't tweeted in years has glitteredeyes which is highly annoying!) So follow if you are interested, I have no profile pic as of yet but that shall change when I get on to my laptop and find a decent one.**_

* * *

Was she was relieved or dismayed to see that it was Michelle at her door instead of Peter?

Carla couldn't be sure but as her best friend waltzed right into her flat, she let out a distinct sigh all the same.

How much of a bitch was she that she would have rather it be her ex husband at her door than her best friend since she was about thirteen?

Michelle looked at Carla for a second, in a way that only a best friend could. In a totally judgemental and suspicious way, one that made Carla feel incredibly guilty.

Had Michelle seen Peter outside? Had she maybe run into him and guessed what had gone on last night?

The mere idea of it made Carla's eyes widen.

Michelle of course had no idea about last night and no one had see Peter, who had left Victoria Court a good hour ago.

"What Chelle?" Carla said as Michelle continued to study her every move.

Between her wild hair and her half dressed attire, Michelle could only guess that she was maybe interrupting the morning after a very busy night for Carla and Nick.

She could only guess that Carla had gotten hold of him like she wanted and that she had her wicked way with him for the rest of the night and maybe even into the morning.

If only Michelle knew.

If only she'd known that Carla had her wicked way indeed, just not with her boyfriend of almost six months.

"Is Nick ere?" Michelle eventually said, making Carla's chest not feel so tight at the thought of being caught out but reminding her of just what she had done.

"No." Carla said.

"Oh… I just assumed that you'd eventually got hold of him that's all." Michelle said with an eyebrow raised, especially when she saw Carla's red lacy knickers still lying on the floor.

"He was ere… He's gone now though." Carla lied, bending down and picking up the underwear that Peter had slipped down her thighs and past her legs the night before. She put the knickers into her dressing gown pocket and tried her very best to look nonchalant.

After all, Michelle was her best friend and one wrong movement or facial expression could tell her that she was hiding something.

"Oh right…" Michelle said although of course she could sense that something about her best friend wasn't quite right.

Carla made a coffee and also made small talk with her friend for a few minutes before her gaze danced over to the scrunched up piece of paper on the floor.

The very same piece of paper that Peter had left on her kitchen counter, the one with his almost promise to return and return some day soon.

The thought of Peter turning up again, unannounced and armed with desire was enough to make Carla tremble again.

She thought about how he had pushed her up against the kitchen counter, the one that she was stood right against at this very moment.

"Carla!" Michelle said, snapping her out of her illicit daydream and bringing her crashing back to reality.

A reality where she was now a cheating, lying excuse of a woman.

"Sorry Chelle." Carla said, bending down and picking up that piece of paper that she had screwed up and thrown across her kitchen.

The last thing she wanted or needed was Michelle to have read what was written on it.

She knew what Michelle would say if she found out what she had done last night and she was not in the mood for a holier than thou lecture at the moment.

She was still pissed that Peter had legged it and was starting to feel guiltier than ever for what she had done.

"What's that?" Michelle asked, watching Carla as she put the crumpled up piece of paper into the pocket of her dressing gown.

"Nothing."

Carla quickly shrugged it off and changed the subject. They talked about the trivial kind of things that best friends usually talked about but Michelle wasn't stupid, she knew there was something not quite right with her friend's behaviour. She knew that something was definitely up.

She wondered if Carla still had Nick in her bedroom and that she wanted to get in a quickie before going to work especially when Carla tried to fob her off with a story about needing to go and get ready for an early start at work.

Michelle thought that her Nick theory must have been right and made her self scarce, deciding that she would definitely question Carla about this later.

Carla took a sigh of relief once Michelle had left her flat and was sure if she didn't get a move on and fast, that Nick would soon be there at her door and Carla just wasn't sure if she wanted to see him just yet.

As she got dressed, did her hair, her make up and all the other stuff you did whilst getting ready for work, she thought about the mundane activities that she was about to face in the day ahead. She thought about the emails she had to send and the orders she had to supervise but as she looked at her untidy bed sheets and the rest of last nights outfit that was on the floor... Her activities with Peter filled her head instead.

It was a while before these words that Peter had said to her last night had come to mind.

 _"_ _Trust me Carla… When I'm done with you, you won't even know where work is."_

She tried to shake off the image of his head, going slowly down her body and kissing her all over but it still managed to completely take her over and it was only when her phone began ringing that Carla had realised that Peter was right.

She had forgotten all about going to work and was still sat inside her flat when she was supposed to be at the factory about half and hour ago.

As she left her place and raced over to the factory, Carla wondered whether Peter was somewhere around.

Was he sat in his Dad's place with his hands wrapped around a mug of coffee, maybe pretending like he had just got back from Antigua and that had come for a visit perhaps?

Was he sat in the café having breakfast, acting like he was fresh off the plane and jet lagged?

It then dawned on Carla that when she had seen Peter last night he had no luggage with him, in fact he had absolutely nothing on him at all other than a cocky attitude and a hunger to get under her skin.

She got to the factory and before going inside the building, Carla made herself promise that she would try her very best to forget about last night.

After all, thats what she had said she was going to do.

After all she had been the one to insist that what went on in that bedroom of hers, was only supposed to be for one night.

It only took Carla fifteen minutes or so to realise that forgetting all about last night was not an option.

As the employees of underworld began stitching and sewing and as she sat all alone in her office, thoughts of Peter started to slowly consume her mind.

She glanced at her ordinary office surroundings and went into her handbag, she pulled out the note that Peter had left her and began reading it over and over again.

She had no idea why his familiar scrawl meant so much to her. Why his cocky and arrogant words were now etched into her memory and why she so carefully folded up that piece of paper and placed it carefully back into her bag before she left work at the end of the day.

No matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop thinking about Peter.

There wasn't a part of her body that he had left untouched, un-kissed and un-pleasured. She felt like his fingerprints left her body completely covered for hours and she hadn't even noticed the time until she heard all her employee's saying goodbye to her as they left the building.

Carla got up too, and as she walked home she ran into Ken and Simon.

She made sure she spoke to them. She made sure she made a proper conversation because she wanted to see if either one of them had mentioned that Peter was back.

Neither of them did though, neither of them gave her the slightest hint that Peter was back in town which made it very clear to Carla that he had only come to see her last night.

How could he? How could he have been on the street and not seen his Dad or his own son?

What a selfish bastard.

Then she remembered him telling her that he was _"Way too messed up to even think about getting back together."_ What the heck did that mean?

Carla spent the next few hours of her time wondering what it meant, going over and over it in her head again and again.

It was only when there was a faint knock on her door at around eight pm that evening that Carla was reminded that she had a boyfriend in Nick.

"Hey stranger." Nick said walking into her flat and kissing her sweetly on the cheek.

The _"Hey Stranger."_ That Nick had used to greet her, weighed on her mind as she closed the door behind him.

He of course, hadn't meant it in a way that meant anything other than he missed her but of he didn't know just how much of a different person Carla felt.

Last night had changed her and she wasn't sure if it was obvious or not.

It didn't seem obvious as Nick took his coat of and told Carla to sit down. He treated her like he always did and didn't suspect a thing.

Despite the impending guilt that Carla felt for cheating on such a kind and sweet man like Nick, she still managed to truly enjoyed a night in his company.

Nick cooked dinner and opened a bottle of Carla's favourite wine and as they sipped their drinks and chewed their food companionably Carla knew exactly where tonight was headed.

The mixture of wine and last night's sordid memories made Carla lead Nick over to her sofa.

She had to take him there, it had to be her sofa and not her bed.

She didn't want Nick anywhere near her bedroom right now, not after Peter had tainted it.

Nick of course didn't know this about Carla's insistence to have him on her sofa. He just guessed she was just as aroused as he was and couldn't wait for a moment longer, which she was.

She was just aroused for all the wrong reasons.

After a whole day of thinking about Peter and what he did to her, Carla felt like she just had to give Nick a chance to recreate that feeling that had somehow lasted her all night.

That one where she didn't care about anyone or anything on this earth, other than who was on top of her.

She kissed Nick and pulled him towards her by his tie, and as crazy as it sounded, Carla hoped that somehow Peter knew she was about to have sex with Nick.

She hoped that wherever he was, he'd be thinking about it and she hoped that it was driving him absolutely crazy.

As Nick leant forward and kissed Carla back, she let him push her body backwards so that she was no on her back with him on top of her.

His kisses were incredibly pleasurable and as they quickly began shedding their clothes, Carla was sure that Peter was wrong about Nick.

She was sure that he would be able to get her to reach the same heights of ecstasy that she had done last night.

Nick was a good lover, not the same kind of lover that Peter was but Carla had always been okay with that, in fact she had actually found that endearing about him.

Well… She used to find it endearing, she used to be okay with that.

Now she wasn't so sure.

As Nick moved above her, as he kissed her body gently and as they began making love Carla put all her efforts into concentrating on him and him alone.

It worked. She did just concentrate on Nick...

Well until it was over at least. Until Nick collapsed against her and rest his head on her chest. She laid underneath him and although it was wrong and completely inappropriate her thoughts turned to Peter once again.

Carla hoped this sort of thing would go away soon, that with in time she would no longer think about Peter in that way again but she realised very soon that she was just fooling herself.

It happened every time she and Nick had sex over that week. With every noise she made and every moan that came from within she found herself listening to it to see if it was as loud and as powerful as the ones that Peter had managed to get out of her.

Nick didn't know what she was doing thank god and even though she still felt so guilty for her night of passion with Peter, Carla didn't tell him about it.

She couldn't tell him about it. Nick had practically saved her over the summer and despite the fact that she'd recently cheated on him with Peter, her relationship with Nick was utterly perfect.

Telling Nick about Peter would only hurt him. It would ruin things completely between them and since Peter had gone there was no sense in doing any of that... was there?

* * *

An exact week after the sinful night with Peter, an exact week since he'd presumably gone back to wherever he came from, Carla was alone in her office at Underworld. She had a glass of wine on her desk and was playing music to try and drown out the deafening silence that she was working in.

It was eight pm and she was trying to catch up on filing that she had got behind on when she heard the sound of the factory door opening and then closing. She rolled her eyes and assumed that it was Nick coming to have a go at her for working late, just like he always did whenever he saw the factory lights on.

"Look I know what you said but I ave a really good excuse for working late tonight and…"

She stopped talking when she turned around.

It wasn't Nick… it was Peter.

"Go on then…" he smirked, "What's your excuse for working so late?"

Carla was stunned to see Peter stood before her but she really shouldn't have been because after all, he'd promised her that he would come back didn't he?

"What are you doing ere?" She said, closing the filing cabinet door and staring at him.

He was dressed a little differently this time. Not in his leather jacket but in a smart black jacket with a white shirt and black trousers.

It wasn't exactly a suit but it was a far cry from the casual jeans and T-Shirt combo he had been in, the last time they'd seen each other.

Carla was dressed in black and white too, black jeans a white shirt.

"I saw the lights on." Peter said as Carla reached for her glass of wine and downed it quickly. "Thought I'd come n say ello."

"Hello." Carla said, plainly and without any emotion what so ever. Peter nodded at her and then grinned.

"How's Nick?"

"You ave some nerve." Carla said putting the empty wine glass down and reaching for the bottle to give herself a refill. She wanted another one because it was actually _her_ nerve that she was concerned about. Peter reached over and took the bottle of wine before she could.

"You're not supposed to drink in a place of work." He then tutted patronisingly at her, before taking it out of her office and over to the sink.

"Oi!" She cried, following him out of her office and to where he poured the rest of her beloved drink down the sink.

"You don't need this."

"Where the hell d'ya get off telling me what I need?" Carla cried angrily as Peter put the empty bottle of wine down on the counter. "I'm serious Peter… who do you think you are?"

"I was your husband the last time I checked." Peter said with another arrogant smirk as he left the kitchen area of the factory.

"Oh some husband you are. Cheating on me, turning up ere out of the blue n then walking out on me after I was stupid enough to let you back into my bed." Carla said, watching him as he walked past her. She kept herself in the kitchen to make sure she really did try to stop what happened the last time they got too close, from happening again.

"Didn't you get my note?" Peter asked,

"Yeah I got your poxy little note." Carla said, keeping the fact that she kept it hidden in her handbag ever since, to herself. "Even so it didn't really explain why you thought it was appropriate to just up and leave."

"Carla nothing about that night was appropriate let's be honest."

"That's not the point Peter." Carla said, hating the fact that he was gazing around the factory instead of looking at her properly.

"Awww what did you want? A kiss goodbye?" Peter said with a chuckle as he passed by some of the sewing machines. "Boy this place hasn't changed a bit." He said, as if he really was just a passer by who had come to see how Carla was doing, rather than someone who had come by to rile her up and get her pulse racing just like he used to.

"Don't change the subject Peter." Carla said as he had the cheek to swagger right into her office. She tutted at him and followed him in there, she grabbed him by the arm and forced him to look at her properly for the first time since he had arrived.

He looked right into her eyes and then down at her body. She knew he was looking her up and down and just couldn't help but tighten her grip on his arm.

"What was the subject again?" Peter asked, the tremble in his voice showing just how much desire he had to remove her hand away from his arm and put it somewhere else instead.

"Why are you here?" Carla asked sensing what Peter was thinking and removing her hand from body.

"Honestly?" Peter said, taking off his black jacket and putting it on the chair that was nearby him but not taking his eyes off Carla, not for one single moment.

Their outfits were almost identical now, white shirts, black bottoms and black boots, Carla's sky high as usual and Peter's shiny and almost brand new.

Carla took a deep breath and nodded at him, she went to say yes but she was unable to actually say the word.

It was like he had already taken her breath away and he hadn't even done anything this time.

"I'm ere to fuck you again." Peter said.

His blunt words excited Carla so much so that she stumbled backwards, She turned to look at the desk behind her and then back at Peter who had moved closer to her.

It was more than a coincidence that she stopped as she got to the desk and before she could even comprehend what was happening she was sat on top of it.

Her empty wine glass hit the floor along with numerous amounts of files and bits of paperwork as Peter took his place in between her legs. He ran a hand down her back and let it rest on the small of her spine, which curved towards him at his touch.

He looked down at Carla's legs and then back up at her, his confident smirk had been replaced by a look that she had seen before, a look that a week ago had made her realise that this was probably more than sex and before she could even stop herself she said,

"I love you."

"Good." Peter breathed, before letting his lips loose on Carla's.

She had expected him to just keep quiet but instead he stopped kissing her for a moment and spoke again.

He said something that he didn't say the last time they had done this.

"I love you." He said as he began undoing her white shirt. "I just thought I should say it because... well I didn't the last time." Carla hadn't actually realised that he hadn't said it the last time, she hadn't realised it because she was trying to make sure she told herself that what was happening was supposed to be for that night and that night only.

They weren't supposed be talking or thinking about feelings.

Carla nodded at him unable to speak, as she wriggled her shoulders to let Peter take of her shirt and then began kissing her collar bone, a place where she had really craved his kisses the most, especially as it was a place that Nick seemed to neglect when ever they made love.

"Didn't I tell you that this couldn't happen again?" Carla eventually breathed, as Peter stopped his kisses and had moved his hands towards her black jeans. Peter gave her an assured smile and titled his head before he said,

"Please… if you really wanted this to be a one night thing... then you wouldn't ave let it get this far." Carla couldn't help but grin back at Peter as she then began returning the favour by undoing his white shirt.

"I could be teasing you…" Carla began as she undid the last button on his shirt. "I could be leading you into this false sense of security... n then I could just stop… n tell you to go away."

Peter looked at Carla for a moment.

Properly and intensely, so that he could see what she really wanted. He could still read her like a book and he shook his head when he instantly realised that she was just messing with him.

"You won't do that." He said, as Carla pulled his shirt off his body and threw it down onto the floor to join hers.

They were both topless now and let their foreheads rest against each other's for a moment as they breathed heavily.

It was almost as if they were mirrors, copying one another's every movement. Totally in sync with each other's bodies and how they worked.

"How can you be so sure?" Carla whispered, not caring that the factory was well and truly open, the door was still unlocked and that anyone could walk in there at any given moment.

If anything it just added more excitement to the situation.

"Because…" Peter replied, before pressing a quick yet filthy kiss against Carla's lips. "You may think that Nick Tilsey is what you want… but I'm what you need."

Carla knew that she shouldn't let these kind of slick and conceited chat up lines of Peter's work on her, but just they seemed to have a powerful effect her body, one that she couldn't fight off... Even if she wanted to and once again she felt as if she had gone way to far to go back now.

She moved back on the desk slightly and turned the music that she had been playing on the laptop, right up, so that it was a loud as it could go.

"Well…" She said as rested both hands on the desk behind her and licked her lips. " I guess you better give me what I need then."


	5. VooDoo

**_How good was Corrie Live tonight? I asked on my twitter (Check me out eh?) and some of you wanted this tonight so here it is._**

 ** _I hope it doesn't disappoint._**

* * *

"Y'know this is a non smoking building right?" Carla said, walking out of her office and over to Peter, who was sat at the top of the stairs that were on the factory floor.

"I know…" Peter replied calmly, his knees were bent and he was halfway though a smoke whilst Carla went over to the kitchen, picked up a cup and then made her way up the stairs to join him.

To say that they had just had fantastic sex would have been an understatement.

Between the fact that they had waited a week for this and the fact that there was the exciting element of maybe being caught, Carla and Peter had a mind blowing time.

Time that of course, was spent with a few,

 _We're not doing this again's_ being said and the odd _t_ _his is just sex and_ _nothing_ _more,_ coming out of their mouths as well.

Neither one of them meant it of course but saying it out loud seemed like the right thing to do.

For Carla _and_ Peter for that matter.

Shortly after they had finished, after Peter had grinned confidently at an equally satisfied Carla and after he had pulled his jeans and boxers up, Her phone began to ring.

Much to Peter's annoyance Carla hopped straight off her desk and answered it.

She answered it and made small talk whilst Peter reluctantly got dressed.

After a while he went into his black jacket and pulled out a box of cigarettes, he then went and left Carla to her phone call, only to be joined by her minutes later.

"So… how's Nicky doing?" Peter asked complacently, as Carla stopped in front of him. It was clear to her that he was feeling immensely smug about everything.

"Like you care." She said licking her lips absent-mindedly and folding her arms.

"Oh but I do care…" Peter said but he was still grinning smugly. "So go on then, tell me… Has he?"

"Has he what?" Carla asked slightly baffled until Peter's note came to mind.

"Made you feel as good as I do?"

Carla paused for a moment, hating the fact that she found Peter's cocky attitude so attractive.

"Well…?" Peter asked leaning back a little and exhaling smoke from his lips.

"If I said yes would you believe me?" Carla asked, fully knowing that Peter's ego wouldn't allow her to lie to him.

"Probably not."

"I thought as much." Carla said as she reached forward and took the cigarette from between his fingers.

Peter watched in awe as she expertly took in a drag, he didn't quite know what she was doing smoking again but it enchanted him all the same. He watched her for a moment and she knew that she had him totally bewitched, her green eyes bored into his brown ones as she inhaled.

"Since when did you start smoking again?" He asked as Carla leant against the stair banister, still with his cigarette in hand.

"Since I started shagging you again it seems." Carla said blowing smoke out of her lips before flicking the ash into the cup and then handing Peter back his cigarette.

For a second or two there was a silence.

It was silence that they both spent simultaneously reminiscing about the first time they had spoken properly.

It was many, many years ago now.

They'd seen each other around the street of course but had never really made an effort to talk to each other properly, not until that night anyway.

It was in the smoking area of The Rover's and Carla had gone out there to get reception on her phone.

They didn't talk at first, Carla was trying to get hold of a friend and Peter was sat having a smoke and a break from one of his Dad's historic antidotes.

He hadn't been back in Weatherfield for long but he already had a rep for being a bit of a player, a bad boy, a diamond in the rough and even though Carla had yet to properly speak to this man she had a little idea of what he was about...

* * *

 _Carla slammed her phone shut in the frustration of not getting through to her friend and turned around to see Peter, who had been watching her, amused._

 _"Something funny?" She asked, her tone of voice immediately confirmed what he already knew about her, that she was sassy, feisty and not one to be messed with._

 _"No…" Peter said, but he held up his box of cigarettes and then said, "You just look as if you could do with one of these that's all."_

 _"Nah you're alright…" Carla said but she smirked at Peter as she said it, she thought about how cool she had thought smoking was as a teen and had only really started, to impress the boys at school, one boy in particular but that's another story all together._

 _"You sure?" Peter asked, slightly taken by the way her lips had curved upwards when she spoke to him._

 _"Oh yes, I gave up those things a very long time ago." Carla had said with a very self-assured nod._

 _"Good on you… smoking's a very bad habit anyway." Peter said as he continued to puff away on his cigarette._

 _"You seem to ave a lot of bad habits from what I hear?" Carla said still smirking at Peter as he sat just a few feet away from her._

 _"You shouldn't pay attention to idle gossip... Carla is it?" Peter said, although he knew full well that she was called Carla, he then took a deep drag of his cigarette before he smirked cheekily and said, "You should take the time to get to know me… I'm not all that bad."_

 _"Hmmm maybe I will one day." Carla grinned and with that she walked back inside the pub._

* * *

Neither one of them knew it at the time of course but this first meeting of theirs was a sign of things to come.

It was sign of a witty, fun filled friendship, which very quickly became something more.

Something beautiful and something so incredibly flawed that when it was all over, they both knew that they would never truly be able to get over it.

Something that meant after almost a year and a half after them breaking up, that they were now sat together, not in a relationship yet totally and completely fixated on one another.

"Don't start smoking again… It's bad for you." Peter said shaking his head but not taking his own advice and putting his fag back between his lips anyway.

"Well so are you and yet..." Carla said she looked down at her open shirt and began doing up the buttons as Peter continued to smoke in front of her.

When she was done she watched him for a moment, she watched as he inhaled and then exhaled, he captivated her this time and he knew it. He took in another drag before holding his cigarette out for Carla and saying,

"Y'know what they say… sometimes you gotta pick your own poison." Carla took it off him and raised an eyebrow.

"You're just full of one liners tonight aren't you?" She said before taking another pull of the cigarette, she looked down at it and then up at Peter with an intense stare.

"What?" He asked because he could tell by Carla's gaze that her mind was going a mile a minute.

"Why did you come back ere Peter?" She asked, releasing smoke from her mouth as she spoke.

"I told you why." Peter said stiffly as Carla handed him his cigarette back.

"No… I mean the first time. Why did you come back? You said in that note you left that you hadn't planned on spending the night with me so what where your plans?" Carla asked, Peter shuffled uncomfortably on the step for a moment and then got up.

"It doesn't matter." He said, finishing his fag and then walking down the stairs. "I better go."

Carla felt her heart skip a beat at the thought of Peter doing another runner. She wasn't done with him yet.

The man owed her an explanation and she was going to get one.

She got up too and followed him down the stairs and back on to the factory floor. He felt her presence behind him and to make sure that he kept her at arms length he then said,

"Look Carla… this ain't the right time."

"The right time for what Peter?" Carla asked, her head on one side, confused as to what he was getting at.

"For me n you… I mean other than sex, we're no good for each other."

"What?" she exclaimed and then shook her head at him. "Do you seriously think I'm standing ere thinking about getting back together with you? Because if you do then…"

"I'm not thinking that at all, I'm just telling you how I feel." Peter said, watching Carla who let out a quiet laugh and then said a very plain,

"Good… Because I'm not leaving Nick for you."

"Good." Peter replied, as straight forwardly as she had done, although nothing about this situation was straightforward.

Carla wanted answers and she wanted them now, he knew she would eventually, he knew it was a risky game coming to the factory and taking her at a place and time where he wouldn't be able to make a quick getaway.

"Peter… last week you said that you were way to messed up to get back together with me…"

"I did." He nodded,

"Well what does that even mean?" Carla asked but it was too late.

Peter had already put up his walls, the same ones that he kept putting up last week, the ones he kept putting up every time they had almost started talking about their personal lives again.

"Where are you living right now? Are you still working for that boat company?" Carla asked, although she was unable to believe her current predicament. She was the one with the boyfriend, the one in the steady relationship and the one with the good life and yet here she was, asking loads of questions and acting like she was some clingy girlfriend.

She tried not to look at him in this way, with her head on one side and her eyes full of longing but she just couldn't understand his behaviour.

It was like he couldn't bear to speak to her properly for longer than a few minutes, it was like getting too close to her emotionally was just too much pressure for him to handle.

"Don't worry about it." Peter said firmly.

"Don't worry about it?" Carla repeated, wondering why he was so reluctant to tell her anything solid about his life right now.

"Look Carla this is why I left the first time around… to avoid this kind of awkward conversation." Peter said going into her office to get his jacket.

Carla sighed as he walked away from her and was about to follow him in there, when the door to underworld opened and Nick appeared.

Carla was sure that she felt her heart actually stop.

Seeing Nick walk into the building made everything seem real again, she felt a horrible wave of guilt and was totally unable to believe how she had just spent the past hour.

She felt like complete and utter dirt as Nick got closer to her.

"What have I told you about working late?" He kissed her and held her close to him, so happy to have just a few minutes with her after a crazy night in his restaurant.

Carla kissed him back because what other choice did she have? and when Nick pulled away from her, she didn't dare to glance over to the office, she was scared what she might see, what Nick might see if she drew any attention over to it.

All it would take is one look at her dishevelled desk, the smashed wine glass on the floor and the fact that her black knickers were next to it, for Nick to realise that something unsightly had gone on in there.

"Sorry." She said her heart suddenly pounding she was so scared. She wondered where the hell Peter was, she had hoped he was hiding somewhere but as his behaviour seemed so reckless lately, she couldn't be too sure.

She half expected him to jump out at her and Nick, for him to say _"Surprise."_ with the same smug smile that he had been armed with earlier but there really was no sight of him from what she could see, no shadow of him lurking in the corner no head poking out from behind the desk.

"Have you been smoking?" She then heard Nick ask.

He had tasted it on her after swallowing properly, realising that it was tobacco that he could smell in the building when he first walked in and he could also smell it on Carla's clothes too.

"Errr yeah." She said, glad smoke was the odd smell that Nick could smell on her, rather than the smell of sweat mixed with Peter's aftershave. "I erm… kind of started smoking again." She said biting her lip in a guilty fashion, as Nick watched her closely.

"Again?" Nick said baffled. He hadn't actually known that Carla used to be a smoker and after she told him about smoking as a teen, he came out with a very disappointing, "Really? Carla smoking is so bad for you."

"Yeah… so I've heard." Carla said but she was distant with it.

She wanted to get Nick out of that factory and fast. She took a quick glance over to her office, which still looked empty and then took a deep breath when she saw that Peter was obviously hiding.

Nick watched her distracted gaze and then asked,

"You okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine." Carla said, "I'm just surprised to see you, I thought you said you'd be held up at the bistro tonight."

"Yeah I am… I just popped out on a break and saw the lights on." Nick said with an unsuspecting smile.

"Ahh I see…" Carla said with a nervous smile plastered on her face to try and match his genuine one, as he moved towards her again and kissed her on the head. "I'm supposed to be filing stuff but you know me… I love a bit of procrastination."

Nick nodded and kissed Carla again but on the lips this time.

Peter was crouched, on the floor of her office and honestly? It made him feel absolutely worthless.

He hadn't minded being the other man at first, in fact he rather relished it but now that he actually saw Nick and Carla... together, in the flesh, he loathed it.

Sharing Carla was not something he enjoyed, not one little bit.

He happened to take a peek out of the office window to see Nick and Carla kiss romantically, like they had no care in the world.

Anger bubbled up inside of Peter and it took all of his strength not to jump out and tell Nick everything.

Peter had pretending as if the whole Nick Tilsey thing hadn't bothered him, he had been acting like Nick was any other man but in reality he was livid.

How on earth could could Carla have fallen for such a man?

Someone who he'd had so much history with, someone who he'd had many fights with, someone who he had thrown many punches towards and who had been on the receiving end of a few himself.

He didn't get up and say anything, he didn't want to ruin things... and the reason why he didn't, made Peter feel even more hopeless.

He watched as Nick and Carla's torturous kiss had come to an end and as Nick said,

"I ave to head back but hey, if you want procrastination, come n see me in a bit yeah?" He grinned before giving Carla another kiss and going towards the door. "And no more smoking." he called before going out and leaving Carla "alone." in the building.

She took a huge breath and felt the tears prick her eyes as she realised that she couldn't do this to Nick again and she almost was about to call after him, when she heard a noise come from her office.

"He's a right smarmy git." Peter said, walking out of her office, with his black jacket on looking like he was ready to leave.

"Don't start." Carla said, hating her self for being taken over so easily by Peter... again.

"What? Are you all of a sudden feeling guilty?" Peter half mocked, with a sigh, watching as Carla rubbed her head with her hands and then went and sat back on the stairs.

"Yes, yes I am as a matter of fact." She said, suddenly as if she just realised what she had done. "Wow… I really am something." She said, "I mean cheating on him once was bad enough but twice?"

"Technically this is the fourth time…" Peter began with a smirk but even he could see that Carla was not messing around here.

"Peter it shouldn't even have happened once." She said shaking her head, racked with guilt.

"Well it's done now… no point in dwelling on it too much is there?" Peter said casually but deep down he knew that it wasn't as easy as all that. Carla stared at him in disbelief and then shook her head

"D'ya know what Peter… just go will ya." She sighed, bending forward and putting her head in her hands. "You got what you wanted didn't you? What are you still doing ere?"

There was another silence but this one was full of hesitation. Neither one of them were sure what to do next.

It was mighty easy to see why Peter had made a quick exit the last time around.

Eventually he nodded at her and went to leave the factory like she had asked but before he got to the doors he stopped and turned back.

She sniffed hard and wiped her eyes but she was trying hard not to make it obvious that she was crying.

Even after everything they had said to each other, even though they said this was going to be about sex, Peter still couldn't leave her alone.

"Carla…" He said walking back over to her and getting down on his knees, so that he could look at her in the eye. She looked up suddenly and was surprised to see that Peter had come back to her. "Please don't blame yourself for this."

"Well who else should I blame?" Carla said miserably, she now felt just like she had done the first time Peter had left her.

Guilty and totally ashamed of herself.

"Me." Peter said, "I shouldn't of come back ere… It's my fault."

"It takes two to tango Peter." She said,

"Oi... I'm the one with the one liners thank you." Peter said in an attempt to cheer Carla up.

It surprised him because he had been spending the past week telling himself that he only wanted Carla for her body... not for her beautiful mind or her kind heart.

Even so, his remark didn't cheer her up, she shook her head in disbelief and said,

"Oh… I guess I just have to accept the fact that I'm a bad person that's all."

"Carla… You are not a bad person… You're just…"

"A cheating scumbag?" She said but she had half a smirk on her face now and even though she had insisted that Peter stayed someone who she just had illicit sex with, she desperately hoped that he got the "scumbag" reference.

It was another one of their conversations...

She hoped that he remembered that conversation they'd had many years ago and that he cherished it as much as she had done.

 _"No no no no, no guilt trips… that is self indulgent and pointless... You are a cheating scumbag and I am a heartless home wrecker... okay?"_

Peter didn't even have to think about what Carla had just said, he chuckled silently to himself and then said,

"So… Does that make me a heartless home wrecker then?"

"It sure does." Carla said, chuckling back tearfully and thanking god that she didn't have to explain herself. She looked down at her hands then back up at Peter who was becoming less and less cocky by the second and looking more like the old Peter again.

The one she fell in love with but also the one who broke her heart.

The one who she secretly missed every single day or her life.

She didn't want to be a cheater, she didn't want to hurt Nick but she also didn't want to let Peter walk away from her.

He might have acted like he emotionally didn't care about her but it was completely obvious that he did.

The fact that he turned back and came to comfort her told Carla everything she needed to know about Peter Barlow.

"You really feel bad about this don't you." He said, watching Carla as she sat in front of him.

Watching Carla feel bad for cheated on Nick, made him feel bad for making her cheat on Nick.

In fact he almost felt sorry for Nick because Carla was a hell of a lot to loose, not that he had any doubts about her staying with Nick of course.

"Its weird…" Carla began quietly, "because the whole time I was with you earlier… I didn't feel any of this. No guilt, no shame… I felt nothing but you Peter. It's like I forgot all about Nick... It's like I don't know what comes over me." She edged closer to Peter and used both hands to take his jacket of his shoulders. "It's like VooDoo or summat." She let his jacket drop to the ground behind him and then said, "Help me forget Peter… Help me forget… Just one more time."

Their lips met in a passionate yet very slow kiss.

One that had Carla's legs wrap around Peter's body in a heartbeat and had him turn around so that it was him who was now sat on the stairs, with her on his lap.

It could have been a rather dangerous position for them to both be in but Carla found that she still trusted Peter with her life and as he ran a hand down her back and clawed at her shirt, she knew that she had a new bad habit in her life.

Like a lighter to her cigarette... Peter wasn't going to be easy to give up... at all.


	6. Red Lipstick & Brown Eyes

**_I can't seem to stop writing this one..._**

* * *

Peter left Carla at the factory that night but only after another hot and sweaty session of sex, that is.

They had both talked about their current situation and as totally wrong and screwed up as it was, they knew that they just couldn't stop now.

Giving one another up was not an option at this point.

It would have been foolish for them to pretend like they could just go back to their mundane everyday lives.

They simply had to have each other, even if it was by illegitimate means.

Before leaving Carla to get on with the rest of her filing Peter said,

"I'll come and see you again soon, I promise."

The promise that he would return soon was something she'd heard before but as he had actually delivered and in ways that she couldn't have possibly imagined, especially inside her factory, Carla knew that Peter definitely would be back.

She had been at home with Nick, seven days later, when she had realised it was exactly two weeks since that night where it had first began again with Peter.

Thoughts of that night still sent her off into a sensual day dream and now she had the factory night to add to it, Carla was often caught by her employees and friends in an almost trance like state.

She had been wondering if his visits were going to be a weekly thing and was on her sofa whilst Nick was in the kitchen cooking again like the good little boyfriend that he was, when she realised that it was Thursday again.

She was nervous at first, wondering if the door would go and Peter would make his presence known but he didn't.

Instead she spent a nice and quiet evening in with Nick, they drank wine and watched movie, it truly was beautiful only it was ruined as they went into Carla's bedroom to go to bed.

The last man in that bed should have been Nick but of course it wasn't, she had been putting off letting Nick in her bed again, making sure that they went to his place instead of hers or that they just stayed on the sofa.

There seemed to be no stopping Nick this time and as he began undressing Carla she felt herself trying hard not to let him put her onto her bed.

In the end Nick had got his way and it made Carla feel rather terrible, not because she'd had a perticualrly bad time with Nick, in fact it was far from that but it was because deep down inside, she still couldn't not get that wild night two weeks ago with Peter out of her mind.

As Nick peacefully fell asleep next to her, she lay awake and would have been lying to herself if she said that she weren't slightly disappointed that Peter hadn't come over after all.

The normal life she had been living with Nick had been really lovely but there was a part of her that craved the danger and excitement that only being with Peter could bring.

She knew it was selfish and that to be thinking about Peter so much was criminal but she was completely powerless to stop her thoughts from shifting over to him as she lay next to her boyfriend.

She wondered if maybe Peter somehow knew that Nick was round hers and that he'd come over on Friday instead, only he didn't.

He didn't come on Friday and Carla was beginning to think that after the way she acted last time, that Peter might not come back at all.

Their conversation on the factory stairs had been the closest that they had got to talking about their personal lives and she thought that maybe her guilt trip was just too much for Peter to handle.

She thought that whilst he had comforted her, their exchange was way too emotional for his liking and that was why he hadn't come round on Thursday but it wasn't that at all.

The real reason that Peter hadn't come to see her was extremely far from what she was thinking but we'll get into that another time.

Saturday came, Nick had reluctantly gone out for the day with his family so Carla had spent her time thinking about what she would say to Peter if he ever turned up again.

Luckily for her... He did.

She wasn't expecting him to come over that night and was midway through a glass of wine at around eight pm, when there was a knock on her front door.

She had music blaring into her flat but she still heard it.

She heard it because the knock was loud, impatient and one that she had been waiting for since last Thursday.

She tried not to rush over to the door and took a deep breath before answering it, because after all she didn't want to look too keen.

She didn't want to look as if she had been waiting all week for this moment, no longer than that, she had been waiting for it ever since Peter had left her that night at the factory.

She slowly opened her front door to find Peter stood on her doorstep, dressed in a sharp black suit and black shoes.

"Hey…" Peter said, he hoped that he sounded casual and not like he had just all the breath knocked right out of him because Carla looked almost unbelievable.

Dressed in skin-tight black jeans with rips at the knees, a low cut black vest and black sky-high boots, Carla knew that her appearance was more than knocking Peter for six.

Her plump lips were painted a bright shade red and her hair had just been freshly washed and straightened.

"N just where ave you been?" she asked as Peter's eyes went up and down her body twice more.

"Busy." He stammered, finally meeting her gaze with an alluring smile.

"Busy?" Carla asked curiously, the fact that she had no idea where he was living right now and what was going on in his life, drove her crazy.

"Yeah busy." Peter replied but not giving anything away as usual.

"You better come in then." Carla said moving out the way so that she could welcome Peter into her flat. Before he could pounce towards her like they both desperately wanted, Carla had said, "Sit down at the table."

"Excuse me?" Peter said taking off his suit jacket and chucking it on Carla's sofa.

"I said sit down." Carla said pointing at her dining room table. She still had music blaring but she knew that Peter heard her just fine and he was just questioning her motives.

After all, you don't have no strings attached sex with someone and then invite him or her to sit down at your dining room table do you?

Then again… Peter wasn't just someone and as Carla went over to her speakers and turned the music down a fraction, she knew that they had to lay down some ground rules.

"Right." Carla said, sitting down at the opposite end of the table to him.

"Am I in trouble... I feel like I'm at school or something." Peter said, half anxious, half turned on by the situation that Carla had him in.

"You're not in trouble... well not yet anyway." Carla said provocatively, Peter couldn't quite get to grips with the red lipstick and the way it was perfectly applied to her lips. It was so immaculate that it had him wanting to ruin it in all sorts of filthy ways. "What?" Carla asked upon watching his expression.

"Nothing... I was just admiring your lipstick." Peter said not taking his eyes off her, knowing that his intense gaze usually had a rather large effect on Carla.

"Is that so? Well you can borrow it any time ya like." Carla winked, Peter chuckled and then shook his head at her, already feeling the immense pressures of his life over the past week fading away, just by being in her presence.

"I don't want to borrow your lipstick Carla... I want to smuge the hell out of it... so get on with it n tell me why we're sitting ere like this, instead of getting undressed?"

"Well things got a little... much last time. If me n you are seriously going to do this… then I think we need to ave some rules."

"Rules?" Peter said with an eyebrow raised,

"Yeah rules, things that we're not allowed to do..." Carla explained trying not to stare too much because she kept finding her self looking deep into his eyes.

"Okay… although next thing I know you'll be getting me to sign a contract." Peter grinned.

"Don't tempt me." Carla said shaking her head very slowly with a smirk.

Peter found the lustful way that she was looking at him, such a turn on that he was finding it very difficult to sit still.

The fact that she was so far away from him, right at the other end of her dining table was almost torturous because he could almost taste her and feel her touch.

He could smell her perfume and whilst it was a new one of hers, it was a delicious scent that he couldn't wait to get closer to.

"So… these rules then?" Peter said leaning back in his chair a little and licking his lips. "What did ya ave in mind?"

"Well… first of all, I don't want to talk about Nick." Carla said,

"Fine by me." Peter said shrugging but this didn't convince Carla so she continued.

"I'm serious Peter, you may say that now but halfway through sex, I don't want you asking me who does it better." Peter laughed complacently and nodded at Carla in a way that she just couldn't help but grin at.

"Okay… that sounds fair… but since you don't want to talk about Nick, I say that we don't talk about our personal lives period." Peter said.

Carla stopped for a moment.

She knew this was coming.

She knew that Peter wouldn't want to talk about what was going on in his _"messed up life"_ and although it killed her not to know what he was up to, she had to agree... didn't she?

She had to nod and say,

"Fair enough." Because if she didn't, then what right did she have not to tell Peter not to mention Nick.

"So rule number one, No personal lives." Peter said nodding, "What's rule number two?" he asked, as if the whole rule thing had suddenly been his idea.

"Well I gotta be honest with you Peter I don't like the idea of you just turning up ere whenever you fancy it." Said Carla.

"Oh but I think you do." Peter boasted, "I mean don't tell me you don't get a little thrill out of wondering when I'm going to come round next and blow your mind."

"My god you are smug." Carla said picking up her glass of wine and downing the rest of it right in front of him. He watched her as she left a red-lip-shaped stain on her wine glass and then said,

"Trust me Carla… you'd be smug if you were me."

"Oh really? Why's that then?" Carla asked, getting up off her chair to take her empty glass over to her kitchen.

"Just take a look in the mirror darlin and you'll see why I'm so smug." Peter said as she began walking away from him, he shamelessly had his eyes on her behind as she walked past him. "You're honestly the sexiest thing that I've ever seen."

Carla went into her kitchen and didn't let Peter see the gigantic smile that she now had on her face thanks to his compliment and then she realised that she shouldn't be smiling at all.

This wasn't supposed to be a situation where they were going to be giving each other compliments and praise, it was supposed to be about the sex and nothing else.

She washed her glass up quickly and then made her way back over to the dining room table, as she sat back down on her chair she watched Peter yawn and it reminded her of her next rule.

"Rule number two, no sleeping together." She said, Peter looked back at her confused and said,

"Come again?"

"I mean… we cannot be getting ourselves into situations where me n you fall asleep together, so once you've shot your load you're out of ere."

"Okay." Peter chuckled at her candidness and then nodded because she was right, falling asleep together was something that could be very dangerous and that could manifest a whole load of feelings, feelings that Peter really didn't want to talk about, even if he and Carla _had_ both professed their love for each other during the last time that they were together.

"That also brings me onto my next rule… no mention of the L word... ever." Carla said, almost on the same wavelength as Peter now. He grinned that oh so smug grin of his again and as he licked his lips for probably about the fourth time that night, Carla wondered if he knew just how much he was doing that and also if he knew just how much it turned her on.

"Hold on…" he began sitting upright and placing both arms on the table. "What if… I'm pleasuring you so much, what if it's just that amazing that you just can't seem to find any other way to say, _Peter I bloody love how that feels… do it some more._ What then eh?" he asked. Carla rolled her eyes at his cockiness and just said,

"I think I'll manage."

"If you say so." Peter said. It was a few desirable, eye contact exchanges later when he then spoke again. "So am I allowed to make up any rules ere? Cause it seems to me you've chosen all the ones we ave so far." he said, putting his hands together and not taking his eyes off Carla, who was still sat so torturously away from him that he was still completely unable to keep the bottom half of his body still.

"I'm open to suggestions." Carla grinned, looking down at her watch and checking the time, Peter watched her do this and as she looked back up at him, asked,

"Somewhere you ave to be?"

"Yes actually." She said as Peter's face dropped, "Why? Did you think that I was sat ere looking like this just in case you decided to show your face?" It was her turn to look smug now.

Even though she was intrigued to find out more about what Peter was doing with his life these days, she immensely enjoyed being able to flaunt her pretty damn good life in his face.

"I've got a rule." Peter said, looking slightly annoyed now rather than cocky. Carla nodded at him and he then said, "We don't tell anyone about this."

Okay…

So Carla wasn't expecting that to be one of his rules, in fact she was amazed she hadn't thought about it herself for that matter.

"Fine." She said not able to think of any objections to this rule because there really wasn't any.

"So... you aven't even told Michelle about this?" Peter asked, unsure that Carla could keep something like this from her best friend.

"No I aven't." Carla replied truthfully.

"You sure?" Peter asked with a raised eyebrow because Carla and Michelle were way too close not to talk about stuff like this and he wouldn't have been surprised if Michelle didn't already know about his little visits.

"I said No didn't I?" Carla said, "Unless you've told someone, no one knows about this. I mean wasn't exactly planning on running around Weatherfield n telling everyone about the fact that I'm cheating on my boyfriend."

"That actually brings me to my next rule… no guilt trips." Peter said upon Carla's mention of her boyfriend. "When you're with me… I don't want to hear a single guilty word leave those irresistible lips of yours."

"You won't." Carla promised, keeping her cool although the way Peter had said irresistible had her even more aroused than before. "I already told you… when I with you, something takes hold of me… all I feel is you."

"Good." Peter said, his arrogant smile slowly but surely creeping back on his face.

There was another sexually charged silence before Carla got up off her chair and walked over to Peter.

"Get up." She demanded in a way that made Peter rise off the chair instantly and meet her face to face. He wasn't quite sure what she was going to do but the last thing he had been expecting was for her to hold her hand out.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well I think that's enough rules for now don't you? Let shake on em and if we think of anymore we'll discuss it at a later date." Carla said looking down at her watch again.

"Hmmm it seems like you're in a bit of a rush." Peter grinned.

"Oh I am." Carla nodded and then she remembered something, "Wait… we didn't finish talking about the fact that you never tell me when you're coming ere..."

"I think it's better like that…" Peter said moving closer to Carla and to her delight, invading her personal space. "Me turning up when you least expect it. It's more exciting." Carla moved away from Peter slowly as he had gotten so close to her that their trembling bodies were touching.

"Fine… ave it your way then." She breathed, walking backwards, then she put her hand on Peter's chest to stop him from getting any closer to her. She stared right into his eyes for a moment and then said, "So… that's no talking about our personal lives, no sleeping together, no mentions of love and no telling anyone about this."

"Sounds about right." Peter nodded as Carla moved her hand from his chest and held it back out in front of him to shake. "What happens if we break these rules?" Peter then asked.

"We won't." Carla said, she was desperate for Peter to shake her hand so that they could get started but of course Peter being Peter made sure that he lingered in front of her for a moment. "What are you doing?" she sighed in a state of frustration as Peter reached out and gently touched her bottom lip with his thumb. He then rested his hand behind her ear, with his thumb on her cheek.

"Your lips... I just can't explain what they are doing to me right now... They are mesmerising." He said, moving closer to her once more, first gazing at her mouth and then down at her body.

"So are your eyes." Carla whispered, her own gaze fixated on his deep brown eyes and the way that they were watching her. She then realised that she was staring just that little bit too much. That her and Peter were almost crossing a line of some sort, taking in each other way too much for people who insisted that they were just after sex.

As he looked up and met her eyes, Peter suddenly felt that way too, that he was getting way too lost in Carla. He shuffled back slightly and then bit down on his own bottom lip. He knew he couldn't let himself get too close to her and that these rules he had been taking the mick out of, were definitely a good idea.

"Erm... Where were we?" He asked honestly not able to remember anything other than the way Carla had just looked at him.

"The rules." Carla reminded, trying to stay composed yet all the while inside aching from the way Peter had just made her feel.

"Oh right..." Peter complacently acted like he was genuinely going over their new rules in his head even though he was yearning for Carla just as much as she was for him.

"Peter!" She exclaimed, impatiently stamping her foot like a child does when they don't get something that they want.

Peter laughed silently and went to finally shake Carla's hand.

The feeling that they both got when their hands touched, was one that could only be described as electric... no magnetic in fact.

It was as if a simple touch sent a wave of unimaginable, powerful energy between them.

They let go of each other simultaneously and just watched each other... For about a second.

Peter went to kiss Carla, to ruin that perfect lipstick of hers but she put a finger up to his own lips and shook her head.

"What now?" He sighed frustratedly and resting his forehead against hers.

"I've got plans tonight." Carla said wickedly, knowing full well that what she was doing was enough to drive Peter to madness.

"Well cancel em." Peter said trying to kiss Carla again, she raised another finger to his lips and shook her head again.

"I'm not cancelling anything, what kind of person would I be If I cancelled a night out with my best friend, for a night in with you." Carla said still with a finger pressed against Peter's lips. She had been planning to move it away but she didn't move quickly enough because Peter's mouth suddenly opened and he gently bit Carla on her finger. "Oi!" She cried, half laughing and half in shock from what he had just done.

"Well that's what you get for teasing me." Peter said.

"I am not teasing you Peter, I genuinely ave plans."

"You're going out with Michelle? Carla you can do that anytime… I'm only ere for tonight... I mean... does Michelle ever make you feel like I do?" Peter then leant forward and kissed Carla in her favourite and most sensitive part of her collar bone. She moaned gently as his wet lips touched her skin, then she reached up and grabbed a fistfull of his hair.

"Well there was that one time…" she said with a seductive smirk.

"Don't you dare…" Peter groaned, he was already extremely aroused without thinking about what Carla was just implying. She laughed naughtily at him and pushed him away as his kisses went up to her neck.

"Peter…" she began but Peter was too exasperated to let her continue.

"Don't do this to me Carla… not tonight eh?" Peter said and this was the first time that Carla saw Peter not in control of the situation and she had to admit that she secretly loved it.

"Do what?" She asked, loving the effect she was having on him. "I've told you… I ave places to be…"

"So why the hell let it get this far eh? You cannot leave me like this, it's just cruel Carla... I want you so fucking bad." Peter breathed, unable to calm himself down even if he wanted to.

"I want you too and If you had of let me finish…" Carla smirked, "Then you would ave heard me say that I'm meeting Chelle in half n hour so that just means that you ave to work quickly."

"Oh… I knew that." Peter said rather sheepishly and in a way that Carla found incredibly cute.

"Mmmmhmm." She said, grinning properly this time, her teeth exceptionally white against the red lip-stick that she had on. She reached forward and pulled Peter towards her by his tie, she had wondered why he was dressed so smartly but as they weren't supposed to talk about things like that, she just walked him over to her dinning room table. "Let's do it ere." She then flashed him a dirty grin and said, "Just one thing though... if you dare mess up my hair and make up… I'll kill ya."

"Well in that case…" Peter said, spinning Carla around in one swift motion and pushing her up against the table, so that his torso was pressed right up against her back. "How's that?"

"Perfect." Carla said as Peter put an arm around her and undid her jeans from behind, she was glad because it seemed like she and Peter wouldn't be having any eye contact on this one and eye contact was something that they both had dangerously enough of tonight.

Once her jeans were undone and then pulled right down in one swift motion, Carla leant forward and rested each hand on the table that was in front of her.

Amongst all the lust and desire that she was feeling right now, she also felt a wave of relief run through her body.

She didn't need to worry anymore, she and Peter had rules now.

They wouldn't talk about their personal lives and they wouldn't do all the romantic couple stuff either.

They would just thoroughly enjoy being together... sexually, physically and definitely not emotionally, because emotionally meant feelings and feelings were supposed to be something that neither of them had anymore, they were gone, buried deep in a world full of "meaningless" sex and wicked games.

It's just a shame that feelings don't stay buried for long.


	7. Often

So this is how it went.

Peter would show up in Weatherfield on many different occasions and he and Carla would have sex.

Afterwards, he would go back to where ever he had come from and Carla would try her hardest to pretend that everything was as normal.

She'd go back to work or go home and act like she hadn't just cheated on her loving boyfriend.

It happened her office, her flat, basically anywhere that they could get some time alone.

Peter wouldn't always stop by in the evenings, he'd come in the morning, afternoon and some times in the middle of the night.

One time he turned up at two thirty am. It was a long shot and he didn't know if Carla would be alone and/or awake.

Luckily for Peter, Carla was awake. She was sat in her living room wrapped up in a blanket and watching something on Netflix when her buzzer went. Peter had only pressed it lightly so that if she was asleep it wouldn't be loud enough to wake her. The sound of the buzzer was so faint that Carla thought she had imagined it. Then it went off again and Carla sighed as she got up with her blanket, she saw the time and was about to seriously lay into whoever it was, when she remembered that it might be Peter.

"Ello..." She said into the intercom.

"So you are awake..." Peter's husky voice replied. Carla let him in and it wasn't long before he was also on her sofa with her... only they didn't spend the rest of the night watching Netflix thats for sure.

Another time Carla was driving to into town when she saw Peter strolling down the road. She honked at him and ten minutes later they ended up parked down some dark n dingy side road.

Seeing Peter casually stroll down Manchester high street like that did make Carla wonder just where he was staying at the moment, especially as he still hadn't told her anything about his new life but as they hurriedly moved over to her back seat and began undoing their clothes, it wasn't really the time for Carla to start "breaking the rules."

Everyday Carla would tell herself that she would eventually end this affair with Peter, but deep down she knew that there was nothing on this earth that could stop it.

Their "non-emtional" relationship was way too addictive for either of them to give up... even if they wanted to.

Carla also knew that she was being slightly greedy. That to have a man like Nick in her life and to still want… no to still _need_ Peter was ridiculous but whenever she was with him she couldn't even try to act like she cared.

She was having her cake and eating it too, as the saying goes.

It was as if Nick was what was real in her life and Peter was the fantasy… only this particular fantasy was one that she got to act out… very very often.

So often in fact that a month and a half had gone by.

At first Peter continued coming back a week or so later, then he started coming by a few times a week.

Their time together was spent not talking about their personal lives, not falling asleep together, not mentioning the love word and definitely not mentioning Nick.

It still drove Carla insane to know that Peter was hiding stuff from her but she had learnt it that his private life was a touchy subject as he was the one who had suggested they didn't talk about it.

The rules seemed to be a good idea and they really did work… at first that is.

* * *

It was half past two on a cold Monday afternoon when Carla was strolling back towards factory after taking a long lunch break down the chip shop.

She had been thinking about the last time she had seen Peter, at her place on Friday night and they had somehow ended up in her shower.

It wasn't planned of course but nothing they ever did was.

Peter had turned up just as Carla had just got in, from a long session at the gym. She had literally just stepped through the door when there was a knock on it.

She opened it and as Peter walked into her flat she frowned at him.

"What? Is this not a good time or something?" He asked as Carla closed the door behind him.

"No it's fine… I just got in from the gym that's all…" She said kicking off her trainers and undoing her hoodie.

"And?" Peter said with a raised eyebrow, Carla raised an eyebrow back at him in a mirroring fashion and then sheepishly said,

"Well... I'm just a bit sweaty that's all." Peter smirked at her and then let out a rather self assured laugh.

"I don't mind… But hey, I guess it makes a change from being covered in my sweat eh?"

Carla closed her eyes for a second as she laughed at Peter's comment and then she had a very sudden and very filthy brain wave.

"What?" Peter said, upon seeing Carla's smirk and as she pushed his leather over his shoulders. She didn't say anything as his jacket hit the ground and as she undid his jeans in an impatient fashion, it was only when she led him to the bathroom and turned on the shower, that he saw what she had in mind.

She still hadn't kissed him and didn't until they were both naked and in her shower…

You can guess what happened next.

After spending a rather long time in the very posh shower (Peter's words, not Carla's) Peter had got out first and he held out a hand for Carla to take, so that she could get out of her shower safely.

"Such a gentleman." Carla grinned as she took Peter's hand and stepped out of her shower as gracefully as she could given the fact that she was soaking wet and butt naked.

"Oh but I'm not..." Peter said kissing her roughly on the lips as she reached out for some towels.

They giggled, towelling each other dry as they then walked back into Carla's living room.

There was a complete and utter state of pure comfortableness between the pair as they dried each other, there were still totally in sync with each others bodies and it didn't occur to either of them that they were slowly but surely starting to let their buried feelings show in the smallest ways possible.

It was in the way that Peter gently dried her hair with his towel and then kissed her tenderly on her forehead.

It was also in the smile that Carla had on her face after he had kissed her so softly.

As She then wrapped her towel around the both of them and pulled Peter close, he kissed her properly again and what started off as a rather hasty kiss soon became slow and tender.

Neither Peter or Carla wanted to pay attention to the fact that this kiss that they were sharing was more like one you would share with a long term other half and not an illicit lover.

Peter had one hand in Carla's hair and she had both arms wrapped tightly around his body when they heard a knock on the front door.

It made them both jump and Carla knew instantly that it was Nick.

He had this special knock you see, two quick ones and two long ones.

"Shit." She gasped, wrapping her towel properly around herself…"It's Nick…" She said rather unnecessarily as she backed away from the door a little.

"Yeah… I gathered that from your rather over the top reaction." Peter said with a raised eyebrow, not wrapping a towel around his waist and standing next to Carla butt naked. "You don't ave to let him in y'know." he then said.

Carla bit her lip and stared hard at her front door, as there was another knock.

Peter watched her expression and then moved closer, he knew what was going through her mind and decided he needed to stop those kind of thoughts and stop them fast.

"No guilt trips…" he whispered as she stood before him.

"This is not a guilt trip… it's… a I hope he goes away soon." Carla said, unable to keep herself from grinning at Peter's slightly naked state, especially as he wasn't acting the slightest bit shy about the situation as well. Peter looked so incredibly smug and as Carla looked him up and down with a mischievous glint in her eye, he found him self edging closer to her again.

"Carla!" Nick cried from the other side of the door, making her and Peter both jump once more. "I know that you are in there… Mrs Price saw you come up earlier."

"Damn that Mrs Price!" Carla whispered, picking up a towel that they had lost somewhere during the giggles and wrapping it around Peter

"Oi…" cried Peter, batting Carla away as she made him decent.

"Shhh!" She hissed, unfortunately it was too late and Nick had obviously heard Peter because he then said,

"Carla… is that you?" Carla gave Peter a dark look as he pretended to look concerned.

"Is he saying that you sound like a man?" he whispered, silently laughing at the situation that they were now in.

"Carla!" Nick cried again, making it clear he wasn't about to go away anytime soon.

"Yeah… I've just got out the shower hold on…" Carla called, bending down and picking up Peter's jeans, jacket, shoes and T-shirt that had been pulled off his body shortly after he had walked through the door. "Get back in that bathroom now…" She whispered, shoving him towards it and handing him his clothes in the process.

"And what am I supposed to do in ere?" Peter whispered back stumbling as she shoved him again.

"I've got a few ideas…" Carla smirked giving his body the once over again with her eyes but as Peter laughed and moved towards her, she kissed him roughly and shoved him again. "I'll get rid of him as soon as I can…" and with that Carla closed her bathroom door.

Letting Nick into her flat whilst Peter was also there, was a huge risk but Carla trusted Peter to keep quiet.

She straightened up her towel and made sure that there was no more of Peter's belongings hanging around before opening the door.

"Hi… sorry about that I didn't hear ya." Carla began as Nick wrapped his arms around her for a hug. He breathed in as he held her close making Carla feel guilty as he took in her freshly washed scent.

"That's okay." He said walking into her flat without actually being invited.

Carla prayed that Nick wouldn't need to use the toilet and racked her brains to think of a way to get him out of her flat and fast.

He was supposed to be at work right now and she was hoping that this was just a flying visit. She decided to do some damage control though…

Just in case Nick had planned on staying.

"Darlin I don't mean to be rude but I…" Carla started but then trailed off when Nick walked towards her bathroom, she took a quick gasp of relief when Nick walked past it and then stopped to look at her. "I erm… I'm meeting Michelle in literally half n hour."

"Oh… are you?" Nick asked as he looked on her dining table and then over at her bookshelf.

"Yeah… we're erm… going out for drinks." Carla lied rather easily despite the fact that her heart was beating faster and faster.

As terrible as it made her feel, she had become very skilled at lying to Nick over the past few weeks and the only reason she was feeling nervous right now was because Peter was literally a few foot away and she really didn't want him to be seen.

"Well don't worry, I'm not staying, I'm just looking for my watch... I think I left it ere yesterday and Y'know me I'm lost without it." Nick said.

"I haven't seen it." Carla said shaking her head and shrugging. "Maybe it's up at your place?"

"Yeah maybe..." Nick said, still glancing all around her flat. "Ahh well, I'll ave to make do, I wish I could stay but I said to Leanne I'd be back in five." Nick added walking over to Carla and giving her a kiss. She kissed him back, trying her very best not to feel guilty about her behaviour because she had promised Peter that she would not do that when he was around.

After all feeling guilty was self indulgent and pointless.

"Bye Bye Nicholas." She said, snuggling up to him and giving him one more hug before he went to leave, she blocked out all her guilty thoughts and smiled nonchalantly as Nick walked away from her.

She would have been lying if she said that getting away with stuff like this didn't give her some sort of sick little thrill and as Nick got to her door she smiled smugly to herself.

"Oh wait…" Nick said, walking back towards the bathroom and making Carla's stomach lurch. "Maybe it's in ere." He said and before Carla knew it, Nick had his hand on the door.

"Wait!" Carla gasped worriedly but it was too late.

Her eyes snapped shit when Nick turned the door handle.

She was sure then that it was all over.

She was sure that this was karma for all the bad things she had been getting up to with Peter recently and for feeling so smug every time that she got away with cheating.

She was sure that Nick would see Peter and that her little fantasy life with him would be over.

There would be no more secret meet ups at the factory, no more passionate nights in when Nick was held up at the bistro… no more "meaningless" but very incredible sex.

The thing that Carla realised very quickly was that she should have been more worried about her relationship with Nick rather than the dysfunctional one that she had with Peter.

No...

It couldn't be, she wasn't thinking this way at all, her sexual desires were clouding her proper judgement and Carla was definitely more afraid of losing Nick than losing Peter… Right?

"Carla…" Nick begun as she opened her eyes,

"Yeah…"

"What's wrong with your door?" he said, turning the handle again and again. "It's not opening."

"What?" Carla exclaimed, half shocked and half relieved that the door to her bathroom was somehow still closed.

"It's not opening." Nick repeated.

It soon became obvious to Carla that Peter had the sense to lock it from the inside.

"Oh yeah… it's erm been like that for ages, it just keeps locking it's self." Carla lied, rather smoothly given the fact that her heart was still thumping away in her chest.

Nick nodded slowly at first and then looked confused.

It wasn't a look of suspicious confusion that was on Nick's face… it was more of a amused one.

"But weren't you just in there for a shower?" he asked walking back over to Carla and truly believing her story even if it was a little far fetched.

"Err yeah I was but the door was open then… once it's closed though it's a right pain to open again, silly me." Carla said in an almost sarcastic tone of voice. "I'm gonna call Jason over to take a look at it tomorrow."

"Let me know if my watch is in there will ya?" Nick said, kissing Carla again and walking back towards her door. "Have a goodnight with Michelle n I call you tomorrow okay?"

"Okay." Carla said not daring to take a deep breath until Nick was fully out her door.

She was taking no chances at being cocky this time and she also couldn't work out if she was acting oddly or not.

Well if she was, Nick certainly hadn't noticed it anyway.

"Bye beautiful." he called as he opened her door.

"Bye." Carla called after him, breathing a gigantic sigh of relief as her door closed.

She rubbed her forehead as her heart rate returned to normal and was almost unable to believe that any of that had just happened.

That Nick had bought her phantom story about her self-locking bathroom door and that he didn't show an ounce of suspicion.

She then remembered how scared she had been to think that Nick could have seen Peter and still wasn't sure if it was the thought of loosing Nick or loosing Peter that made her so frightened.

She wondered what might have happened if Nick had of seen Peter after all, if he'd opened the bathroom door expecting to find his watch but finding Peter there instead.

"You can come out now." Carla called out to Peter even though she was deep in thought. She heard him unlock the door and he soon appeared in front of her, fully dressed, his hair still damp from the shower they had just taken together.

"Well… That was close." Peter said closing the bathroom door behind him. He looked at Carla as she stood contemplating what she would have done in a situation where and Nick and Peter were face to face. "Carla…" He said, walking over to her and waving a hand in front of her face to get her attention.

"Sorry…" She said, shaking the idea of her and Peter being caught right out of her head and finally looking at Peter again. She looked over at her clock and decided that it was probably time for Peter to get going. "You should probably leave now." She said firmly, nodding him over to her door whilst going over to her kitchen and opening her fridge.

"Yeah yeah…" Peter said nodding back at her.

He was pretty much used to this kind of treatment by now.

He was used to Carla wanting him to make a quick getaway and whilst he'd never admit it, he actually begun to loathe that moment where she told him to leave.

He hated having to walk out of her building and know that Nick Tilsley would be entering it sometime later and that he would be the one who got to cuddle up close to Carla.

Peter would never tell Carla that he felt this way of course, he'd never let her know just how much he detested Nick.

He'd never tell her because they had rules, rules that needed to be followed and his personal feelings were not something that was included with these rules.

"Can I ask you question before I go Carla…?" Peter said, stopping on his way out of her flat, she closed her fridge with a huge bar of white chocolate in her hand and looked at him sideways,

"Ya just did." She said with a smirk. She watched Peter fail to hide his amusement and then, before biting into chocolate she said, "Go on then."

"What if Nick goes n asks Michelle about you two going out?"

"He won't."

"But what if he does?"

Carla stopped chewing for a moment.

She stopped chewing because what if Peter was right? What if Nick did ask?

It wasn't that Nick was the suspicious kind but he might ask Michelle about it in general or he might mention it in a passing conversation and Michelle might not have a bloody clue what he was on about.

Or worse still, he might bump into Michelle tonight and wonder why Carla wasn't with her.

"Oh… Crap." Carla sighed, realising that for once her lies weren't water tight. She knew she couldn't tell Michelle to lie for her because Michelle would then think something was up and would ask a lot of questions. "I really should ave thought this through…" Carla said as Peter tried to think up with some sensible suggestions.

"Why don't you just go n meet Michelle anyway?" He asked, Carla who was still in her towel, yawned and then bit into her chocolate bar again. Peter watched her as she looked ridiculously tired and also rather cute as she yawned again. He didn't know why such a standard thing as yawning had made him smile but it did.

"I'm knackered Peter… I mean between work, the gym and that shower session with you I could probably fall asleep in minutes." Carla eventually said.

"Well why don't you just text _he who must not be named_ and tell him that you've changed your mind? Tell him that you're staying in because you are tired."

"Hmmm…" Carla swallowed and then licked some chocolate off her lips before saying, "I suppose I could... although I think this constitutes a conversation about my personal life and that is not allowed is it?"

"Alright." Peter shrugged, "I were only trying to help."

"I know but don't worry… I'll think of something." Carla said although inside she was definitely thinking that Peter's last idea was a good one.

She could say to Nick that she was staying home instead, that she was having an early night and if he happened to mention anything to Michelle, Carla could just tell her that she had been thinking about calling to meet up but then changed her mind at the last minute.

"Uh I guess I better go off to bed." Carla sighed, eating some more chocolate and then yawning for the third time.

"Yeah well I'd offer to join ya but there are rules against that kinda thing." Peter smirked although deep inside he was yearning to join Carla in her bed.

She hadn't actually let him back in there since that first night, it seemed to be an unwritten rule of hers that Peter could pretty much do what he wanted as long as he stayed away from her bed.

He thought it was because that was the place that she lay with Nick but it was actually because Carla felt like keeping Peter away from her bed, meant that he was being kept away from her heart.

As Carla rubbed her tired eyes, Peter decided it was time for him to vacate but before he did he leant forward and took a quick bite of Carla's chocolate bar.

"The cheek of it…" Carla cried, half laughing as Peter then hit her hard on the behind and said,

"Until next time…"

"Yeah yeah whatever." She called after him as he went to leave her flat.

She tried to ignore the effect that Peter leaving had just had on her.

She tried to ignore the feeling of disappointment that she felt in her stomach… that same one she felt every time Peter left her.

She always told herself it was just because the sex was that good that she hated waiting for his next arrival... Then again Carla would pretty much tell herself anything rather than admit her true feelings.

As she texted Nick and got into her bed, in a pair of black pyjamas and with her hair still damp, Carla felt mighty glad that she and Peter had their rules.

She knew that following them was paramount to this situation and she really tried to ignore the voice inside her head that said…

Rules are meant to be broken.

So back to Monday… Carla was on her way back to underworld when she heard someone wolf whistle at her from a distance.

She recognised that wolf whistle anywhere.

She stopped and turned around to see a very cold and very dapper Peter standing in the alley way that went behind the Rovers.

Dressed in a black coat and grey flat cap, Peter was grinning, clearly taking joy in the fact that Carla looked somewhat surprised and also very exited to see him stood only a few foot away from her.

"Afternoon…" Peter said as she glanced around to see if any one had noticed her or him but as it was a Monday afternoon there was no one really about.

Everyone was either at work or school and this was how she and Peter were once again, able to get away with all sorts.

Carla grinned as her legs took her towards Peter and it wasn't long before they were kissing each other hungrily, stumbling down the the ginnel and stopping outside the back of The Rover's.

The warmth of both of their lips gave them both goose bumps as it had grown bitterly cold in Weatherfield over the past few weeks.

"I've been hoping you'd pass by." Peter said as Carla dropped her hand bag on the floor.

"Mmmm Where d'ya want me? Over the bins?" She grinned, remembering a sarcastic joke she had made whilst down there with Peter many years before when they were having their first affair.

"Nah… The wall is much sturdier." Peter said, pushing her towards it and wasting no time in yanking her black tights down her thighs. Carla gasped at the sudden coldness against her skin and as Peter moved his kisses to her neck.

"I were joking… Peter we can't do it ere… What if someone sees us ?"

"Like who?" Peter asked now that Carla's underwear was also half way down her thighs.

"I dunno… Michelle, Steve… Liz." Carla breathed, "The pub is right there." Peter took a quick glance behind him and realised that she was right, he licked his bottom lip and then pushed Carla into his Dad's back yard, which was the one right next door the pub.

"Is this better?" Peter said as he shut the gate behind him.

"Hardly…" Carla said but she didn't really protest too much because the way that Peter's kisses made her feel was something that was way too good to stop. "Don't ya feel bad though…" She said as Peter placed soft kisses along her jawline.

"About what?" Peter breathed, stopping and looking at her because her tone was intriguing.

"Well y'know aving sex with me in your Dad's back yard when you haven't even been to see him?" Carla panted, the feeling of Peter's kisses still lingering on the side of her face.

"And what makes you think I aven't seen my Dad?" Peter smirked at her, not at all offended by her suggestion at first. Carla shrugged at him and looked rather embarrassed.

"Well I wouldn't know would I?" She said quietly, "After all… We don't talk about that kinda thing do we?"

"We sure don't." Peter nodded but instead of kissing Carla again and hitching her legs up like he had been planning to, he just looked at her for a moment and then found himself saying, "Course I've been to see him... and Simon."

At first Peter didn't care but now he didn't want Carla thinking he was some sort of heartless monster, that he had been back in Manchester on and off for a month now and that he hadn't even popped in to see his own Father or his own child.

"Really?" Carla asked.

"Yeah…" Peter said, "I'd popped over before that first night we had at the factory… And I saw em both last night actually."

"Oh… Well that's good then." Carla nodded, her fingers absentmindedly fiddling with one of the buttons on Peter's coat.

"Yeah it really is actually, Me Dad n Simon were really pleased to see me, Me Dad even says that I seem like I've really changed my ways." Peter smirked as he got to the end of his sentence, he was looking down at Carla's fingers with danced around the top button on his coat.

"If only he knew eh?" Carla grinned, moving Peter's head back up to her lips with a finger underneath his chin. She kissed him, sliding her tongue into his mouth for just a second before moving away again.

"Simon said he's really proud of me…" Peter said frowning a little now, thinking about what his Dad or Simon would say if they knew what he was doing right now. Carla watched his almost sad expression and rubbed his arm sympathetically for a moment.

It would have been a really sweet moment between them, if Carla's underwear and tights weren't bunched together in the middle of her thighs and her dress hadn't been pulled right up to her navel.

"As lovely as that is to hear…" She said, pulling Peter towards her by his coat and then grinning down at his jeans which suddenly looked as if they were very tight. "I'm freezing my arse off n I don't think we should be talking about your Dad or Simon right now, do you?"

"Absolutely not." Peter with a chuckle and with that he hitched one of Carla's legs up and kissed her again.

"This is really risky though... I mean what if your Dad's home?" Carla groaned as Peter had already started working magic with his fingers.

"He's not..." Peter said shutting her up with another kiss.

He didn't let her speak again, not that she could have as Peter had made it his mission to make Carla cry out louder than she had ever done before... he just tried his very best to ignore the fact that her moans and groans were echoing in his Dad's back yard.

Ken Barlow would definitely not approve of his "quiet thinking space" being used like this.

When they were finished... when Carla and Peter had both caught there breaths that is, they barley had a chance to pull themselves together, when a voice suddenly came from nowhere and said,

"Carla!"


	8. Obsession

Carla and Peter both stared at each other for a moment.

They weren't sure whether to laugh or cry.

It wasn't the first time that they had almost got caught and the way that they were carrying on, it definitely wouldn't be the last.

"Carla!" The voice called again, louder this time, sounding more confused than before.

"Uh oh..." Peter mouthed, although not in a concerned way more in a comical one.

Carla took a deep breath, still slightly trembling from the outdoor sex with Peter and then left Ken Barlow's backyard to find Michelle stood outside of it.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked, her face screwed up in confusion and with Carla's handbag dangling in one of her hands.

"What d'ya mean?" Carla asked, trying her absolute hardest not to make it obvious that she had just been having slightly forbidden sex with her ex husband in his Dad's pokey back yard.

Peter listened from the other side of the gate, wondering just what Carla would say to get herself out of this rather sticky situation.

"I mean… what are you doing in Ken's back yard and what is your handbag doing out ere?" Michelle asked, handing it to Carla. "I just came out n saw it on the floor." Carla took a short sigh of relief as it genuinely looked as if Michelle had no idea about what she had just been up to.

Thank god.

"Well I were going to visit Ken but he's not in." Carla began awkwardly, Michelle watched her closely and then said,

"Carla… what's going on with you?"

"I…. dunno what you mean." Carla said, slightly regretting taking that sigh of relief now because Michelle was looking at her in a suspicious way.

In a way that Carla recognised, in a way that said I know just what you are up to.

"Something is going on… ave you been heavily drinking again or something?" Michelle said delicately, in a concerning tone, one that showed she deeply cared for her friend and that she was worried about her recent behaviour.

"No." Carla said, shaking her head because it was the truth and besides she didn't need to drink when Peter was around, as cheesy as it sounded, he was enough to make her feel drunk. "Why on earth would ya say that?"

"Well it's just… You're acting really odd that's all… As a matter of fact you've been acting odd for weeks now."

"Ave I?" Carla shrugged, taking her handbag of Michelle and walking off, she prayed that Michelle would follow her, that Michelle wouldn't open the gate to Ken's yard to find Peter.

Michelle shook her head at Carla and followed her out of the ginnel.

"Err yes." She said dryly, like Carla was a fool for even thinking otherwise. "Carla you barley come out anymore and when you do you seem really distracted… Like your mind is completely somewhere else."

Carla shook her head in denial as she walked onwards. Michelle was correct, they had barley seen each other because Carla's nights were almost always spent with Peter or Nick and if they weren't, then she'd have to spend a night alone just to catch up on her sleep.

"Look Michelle…" Carla said once they were a safe distance away from Ken's backyard and from Peter Barlow. "I'm fine… work is just really busy that's all and I'm aving a few late nights with Nick." Carla spoke so confidently that Michelle believed her, for now anyway and she let Carla go back to work without asking her any more questions.

As Carla walked to the factory she chewed her lip nervously and she knew that even though her and Peter were trying to be careful, they really weren't being careful enough and cracks were starting to show.

It wasn't just Michelle who had noticed Carla's odd behaviour. Her employees had noticed it too. They'd clocked on to how sometimes she would come into work in a completely foul mood only to come back from her lunch break in a totally different one.

They'd noticed that she would sometimes have dark circles under her eyes and that she would be yawning constantly even though she left the building just after lunch the previous day and said that she was getting an early night in.

They'd notice how sometimes she would be off in a total daydream but like Michelle they just didn't know why.

They didn't know just how much that she was thinking about Peter and when his next visit would be.

They didn't know that she sometimes got lost in the way that he made her feel the night before and they certainly didn't know just how much he had got right under her skin.

Not matter how hard she tried Carla really couldn't understand just how Peter did it and you know what… She didn't want to either.

Making sense of the way that Peter was able to take over her soul was something that she really didn't want to do because if she did she knew that it would ultimately end up in her realising the true extent of her feelings… feelings that were supposed to be long gone.

Upon walking back into her building Carla absentmindedly pulled out her phone and sent Peter a text message…

 ** _"That was way too close for my liking Peter… But I loved every single second of it."_**

She sat down at her desk and awaited Peter's reply. It didn't come straight away which irked her in fact it came almost three hours later…

 _ **"Glad you enjoyed yourself… We should do it again sometime."**_

Carla couldn't help but reply straight away to Peter's message, even if she really shouldn't have. She was grinning down at her phone as she walked home and typed out her reply,

 _ **"Not in your Dad's backyard mind… I think he'd ave a heart attack if he knew what we did today."**_

Peter's next reply came swiftly, just as Carla was walking towards her flat…

 ** _"Don't worry… he has no idea & I'm sure we'll find some much more creative places n spaces to get it on… Also… Does this mean we're texting each other now?"_**

Carla stopped and thought about things for a moment. She hadn't thought about it at first, she hadn't realised it when she texted him, it was just something she had done on impulse but now Peter had mentioned it, she remembered that they hadn't texted each other for years. Not since before they had broken up. She wondered if she should maybe just ignore Peter's text now, that if she should pretend as if this new connection between them hadn't of been made because she knew that if she allowed this… If she allowed her and Peter to text start texting each other again, then his texts would probably end up driving her wild.

In the end, after thinking about it for a few more minutes, she typed out her reply and quickly pressed send…

 _ **"I guess it does…"**_

It didn't take long for Carla to realise she was right.

Peter would text her stuff… filthy stuff, the kind of stuff that got her aching for him and then his texts would suddenly vanish. He wouldn't text her back until the next day or something, which drove her insane.

She also had to make sure that she kept an eye on her phone, she one hundred percent trusted Nick not to go through it but she felt safer when she kept it close by and when she made sure that she was the only one who got to read Peter's hungry words.

To stop Michelle's suspicions she also went along for a girl's night out in the pub. She had hoped the evening would be Peter free and it was at first, it was until some of the other women in the pub were talking about the men on the street and a rather tipsy Beth Tinker nudged Carla and said,

"Y'know who I've always thought was well fit… Peter Barlow."

The sound of his name coming out of someone else's mouth sent a chill up Carla's spine and it felt as if he was almost in the room with her.

"D'ya miss him?" Beth then asked. Before Carla could speak Michelle had let out a rather loud laugh and said,

"Don't be ridiculous." _She_ nudged Carla this time and then said, "As if."

"Yeah… as if." Carla scoffed, with a confident flick of her hair as she picked up her wine glass.

As if… as if she could miss him when his little visits soon became visits that happened almost every other day.

Even though it was always him who chose what time and when he would show his face, Carla definitely made sure that she showed Peter that he didn't call all the shots.

Sometimes she had him at her complete mercy, she'd made him wait for it and whilst the wait would be excruciatingly fun it always had him begging her for more and that was exactly where she wanted him.

However the majority of the time it was Peter who was in charge. He would have total ownership over Carla's body. He had her doing things that she never thought she's see her self do.

A lot of the time it would be rough, very rough, so rough and full of passion that they both started to become covered in bruises and Carla had to make up lies to Nick about being clumsy but there were also a few gentler times, rare times where they would both just collapse onto her sofa and move together, equally in control and simultaneously.

One of those times happened on a Friday night...

Carla had been sat watching television when her phone vibrated on her coffee table, she leant forward and took a look at the message she had received…

 _ **"Where are you right now gorgeous?"**_

She felt a tinge of excitement as this message had come out of the blue and looked as if she might be seeing Peter tonight so she quickly replied with…

 ** _"At home… why?"_**

Peter's reply came quicker than she had expected, almost within the same minute of her sending hers.

 ** _"and you're staying at home? Right?"_**

Carla picked up her glass of wine and knew that she had no intentions of going out tonight, Nick was away on business and she had planned on staying in alone… thankfully it looked as if she might not have to spend it alone after all. She replied to Peter's question with…

 ** _"Well I guess that depends on you doesn't it?"_**

She really hoped that Peter's reply would come quickly, that he would actually turn up tonight and that this wasn't one of those nights were he was just messing around with her.

 ** _"Does it now?"_**

Carla sighed at this reply and after not seeing Peter since Wednesday night, she decided she had to make it clear what she wanted from him tonight…

 ** _"You know it does… don't play games with me tonight Peter, I avent the patience for it. Just tell me if you're planning on coming tonight… cause I will be… with or without your help xx"_**

 ** _"Ha ha I see what you did there… I'll be at your place soon… very soon. xx"_**

Carla grinned and felt rather satisfied with Peter's reply. She then realised that it was probably the first time that she had Peter had actually organised it between them. That he had actually told her that he would be coming round tonight rather than teasing her for the evening only to eventually surface tomorrow.

Her buzzer went off half an hour later and when Peter knocked on her door, Carla opened it to see him dressed in a black T shirt and jeans… a typical Peter ensemble rather than the smart attire he had been in the last few times she had seen him.

When Carla looked at him properly she sensed that he was slightly different. He was still cocky, still confident but he had an edge to him tonight, he was almost jittery in fact. She went to say something but he kissed her before she could speak.

When his lips touched hers, she could almost feel the stress that ran through his body, they travelled slowly over to her sofa where she fell naturally onto it and dragged Peter on top of her. When they broke apart to catch their breath, Carla managed to get in a quick,

"Are you okay?" Peter nodded at her as she lay beneath him and as she raised her hand and wrapped it gently around his neck. They gazed into each other's contrasting eyes and as Carla looked up at him reverently, he said a very breathy yet assuring,

"I am now."

He then bent his head and kissed Carla again and as their embraced deepened, it was almost as if she could feel the tenseness leave Peter's body. It wasn't long before they realised that what was happening between them was becoming more than just sex again so in an attempt to rough things up again, Peter took both of Carla's arms and pinned them above her head. She gasped as he did so as it was rather unexpected but when he started to kiss her again she just couldn't help but move them down his body.

"No…" Peter demanded, putting her arms back where he had left them. "Leave em there."

Carla nodded obediently but Peter grinned at her and held her arms in place because he knew there was no way she'd be able to refrain from touching him once he had got started.

He eventually had to let go of her arms to pull of her jeans and when he did, she saw it as an opportunity.

"Oi…" Peter chuckled as Carla pulled him back on top of her and began undoing his jeans. He comically tried to stop her but she was to quick for him and had his jeans down by his ankles in no time. He kicked them off and pulled of his own T-shirt whilst Carla removed hers. "Put ya arms back up above ya head." Peter said playfully but again Carla was to quick for him and he couldn't catch them.

"No!" she giggled, wriggling beneath him and moving her arms around so that he couldn't take hold of them.

"Carla…" he laughed as she waved her arms about in a ridiculous fashion,

"Peter…" she mocked, copying his tone of voice as she put both arms around his neck and pulled him close. "Did ya miss me yesterday." Peter grinned, as Carla grazed a thumb over the back of his neck and spoke again, "Well did ya?"

"Mmmmhmmmm I sure did… did you miss me?"

"Yes…" She said dreamily, thinking about how desperate she had been for Peter's presence last night. "Well I missed certain parts of you." She added with a poke to his arm.

"The cheek of it." Peter said, poking her in her flat stomach and pretending to be offended.

As a mini poking war started, there soon was another moment infectious giggling and gazing before Peter suddenly leant forward and kissed Carla passionately.

She moaned softly into it as she pulled down his boxers and as he pulled down her knickers.

Once their bodies were connected and his lips left hers to trail over to her jawline, Peter found himself saying,

"I swear… I don't ever want this to end."

"Me neither baby." Carla said, her old pet name for him slipping off her tongue absentmindedly. "Promise me it won't stop" she begged, "Promise me you won't stop."

"I promise…" Peter said, thrusting against her in a way that already had her eyes rolling backwards. "I promise I won't stop."

It was a metaphoric promise or course, they obviously had to stop at some point, no one, no matter how long they could last, could last forever.

It ended with Carla on top, beads of sweat ran down their foreheads as she collapsed into his chest. Their hearts were both pounding a mile a minute and their breathing seemed to syncopate one another's.

After a while Carla raised her head and kissed Peter on his torso, he ran a hand through her her and kissed her lazily on the forehead as she said,

"That… was pretty incredible." Peter nodded at her complacently and exhaled as she kissed him again only this time on the collar bone. "Honestly Peter… Your so addictive." She said, resting her chin on his chest. "Uh I just cannot get enough of you." She breathed heavily staring at those brown eyes of his in awe.

"Right back at ya." Peter said also breathing rigidly, "I meant what I said earlier… I won't stop… Even if you don't see me for days… Weeks even… I won't stop coming back for you."

"Good." Carla replied, grazing her bottom lip with her teeth and looking down at Peter's bare chest. When she looked up again at his face she saw that he was grinning naughtily and she just could help but ask, "What?"

"I won't stop until all your neighbours know my name." Said Peter, grinning even more arrogantly than before.

"Oh n just how long ave you been waiting to use that one eh?" Carla's eyes rolled as Peter chuckled at his own words.

"A few weeks." He smiled as Carla sat upright and it was then that he thought he was going receive the _it's time to go_ speech that he usually got at around this time.

"You better hope that my neighbours don't know your name…" Carla said, straddling Peter with her legs either side of him.

"Oh yeah and why's that?" Peter asked although he knew exactly who lived directly above her. He watched as Carla glanced up towards her ceiling and then smirked at him.

"Oh I think the bloke upstairs would have something to say about your name being screamed out so loudly at this time of night…"

"And? Please… Carla you should know by now that I am not scared of Nick Tilsley." This was true, Peter wasn't scared of Nick he was scared of something much much worse.

"Eh you." Carla frowned poking him again. ""Don't mention his name."

"You're the one who brought him up." Peter poked back, Carla took hold of the finger that he used to poke her with and just held it for a moment. She kissed it softly and then looked at Peter.

This was it, he was sure was going to tell him to leave, that he'd done what he needed to do and that it was time to go but instead she leant forward and kissed him on the lips.

"I'm just nipping to the loo." she said, before getting up stark naked and going towards her bathroom.

When she had come back, she saw that Peter was in a deep slumber. Laid flat on his back, one arm raised above his head and Carla thought that he looked totally peaceful.

So peaceful that she just watched him for a while and even though she wasn't actually done with him yet, she didn't want to wake him, especially when she thought about how tense he had seemed when she first let him in.

She was desperate to know more about his life, to know what he spent his days doing when he wasn't with her but she knew that she couldn't know, that she wasn't allowed to know and it took her a good few minutes to realise just what she was doing.

She was watching Peter sleep. He was asleep in her flat and she was just letting him get on with it.

She told herself that she wasn't technically breaking any rules because it was only Peter who had fallen asleep and not her.

She continued to watch him slowly breath in and then out. There was something about seeing Peter sleep which made him look so vulnerable and it was something in him that she hadn't seen in the longest time so she was almost entranced by it.

As much as she knew that she should wake him up and tell him to leave, she went and fetched a blanket from her bedroom.

She couldn't believe what she was doing but she did it any way and she shook her head as she gently placed the blanket over Peter's body.

A huge part of her wanted to squeeze up against him, to wrap her arms around him and go to sleep herself but she fought all of her deep desires and went to sleep in her own bed.

She didn't get to sleep easily though, her mind was totally consumed by Peter and it was only made worse by the fact that he was only next door.

She did fall asleep in the end though and she awoke to find her sofa empty. She tried to ignore the disappointed feeling of seeing that Peter was not there and went about her Saturday as best as she could.

She tried to get the image of Peter out of her head, she tried to distract herself and went shopping, she went in all her favourite shops but thoughts of Peter danced through her mind and when she returned home empty handed, Carla then realised that she was beginning to become a slightly obsessed with Peter.

There was a very thin line between love and lust and she wasn't sure if that line even existed anymore.

He was like a drug. A drug that ran right through her veins and when he wasn't around she became rather irritable.

Monday night came and Peter still hadn't come over to see her. She thought about texting him and asking him where he was but went against it as she didn't want to seem weak. Nick had come over to her place, he noticed she was slightly different and he tried to cheer up as such but he just couldn't do it, he couldn't do it because he wasn't Peter.

Wednesday came and Carla finally decided enough was enough. She texted Peter and said,

 ** _"Where the hell are you?"_**

She didn't receive a reply so on Thursday she texted him again only this time it said,

 ** _"Peter… I'm craving your touch. I'm not messing around here. I want you!"_**

Peter didn't reply to her message again and it made Carla start to feel nervous. She wondered if Peter was just taking his game playing too far, that he was going to pop up at any moment and blow her mind only he didn't.

He didn't and then Friday arrived, a week after he had turned up at Carla's. She didn't know what to do and she was getting rather worried that something might have happened to him, not to mention she was starting to become rather sexually frustrated in a way that Nick just couldn't fix.

So… Carla then did something that she really shouldn't have. She did something that she would soon come to regret and something that she knew Peter wouldn't have liked… At all.

It was around seven pm the next day when she approached Ken. She did it casually though, she thought about this properly and had worked it out so that she would look as if she was just making conversation.

Ken was at the bar in the pub, when she went and stood next to him. She had rather guiltily left Nick sat in booth whilst she smiled at Ken and said,

"How are ya?"

"Good." Ken replied with a nod, in a way that showed Carla that he was being truthful and that nothing serious had happened to Peter because he off all people would have known. "You?"

"Oh I'm fine." She lied. She was far from fine. She felt guilty for talking to Ken but there was no one else she could ask because as far as she knew, no one else knew that Peter was around. Ken was the only person who could help her.

Carla knew she had to do this properly, she couldn't just ask about Peter straight off because that would be obvious and foolish so she had to stand and make small talk with his Dad for a while.

They spoke about the weather, stuff on the telly and other mundane topics like that and when Carla truly couldn't take anymore she asked as casually as she could manage,

"So ave you heard from Peter lately?"

"Peter?" Ken said, a little surprised to hear Carla ask about his son. His son who was the love of her life. His son who hurt her more than anyone had in her life… And given the life that Carla had that was a pretty hard thing to do. What Ken didn't know was that his son had been pleasuring Carla for months now and in ways that had made her desperate enough to do this. "Yes I have actually."

"Oh…" Carla said, now wondering how she could casually ask just when he had heard from Peter. She told herself that she just wanted to know that Peter was safe and sound but it was more than that, she wanted him back and she wanted him back quick. "How's he doing in Antigua?" She then asked, cleverly so that Ken would have to mention that he wasn't there anymore.

"Oh he doesn't work there anymore." Ken said, not thinking twice about telling Carla about Peter's life, little knowing Peter had been working over time for the past two months to make sure that Carla knew as little about it as possible. "He lives in Manchester Central now."

"Oh does he now?" Carla said, nodding and pretending as if this news didn't effect her as much as it did. The news that Peter Barlow was only a ten minute drive or so away annoyed her for some reason but it explained how he was able to turn up so often and also how she had seen him strolling down the high street that time.

"Yes he's been there for about five months now…" Ken said, "Although he's not there right now… He's actually gone on holiday at the moment."

"Huh!" Carla said, brashly and unexpectedly.

So that's where he was, on holiday. She couldn't believe he hadn't told her about it but then again they didn't talk about their personal lives.

Carla should have stopped there… She should have gone and sat back with Nick and tried to enjoy her evening but she didn't. Instead she said, "With who?"

Ken looked awkward now. Ken looked really awkward actually and as Carla looked at him intently he then said,

"With Jessica."

The name Jessica sent shockwaves right through Carla's body.

Who the hell was Jessica? And how come she was on holiday with Peter?

It was obvious who Jessica was.

It was clear by the look on Ken's face…

Peter had a girlfriend.


	9. Perfect

Carla ended up breaking up with Nick.

She simply had to end this double life that she had been living.

She had never planned for things to go this far but now that it had she couldn't go back and she couldn't bear to string Nick along anymore.

She had never wanted to end things with him and had never planned to either but her behaviour over the past few days had made her realise that she had crossed the line.

Her behaviour started to make her question everything about her self.

But before we get into how Carla ended things with Nick lets go back to the night where she had found out that Peter was on holiday, shall we?

So after the initial shock of finding out that Peter had a girlfriend called Jessica wore off (and the shock that they were obviously serious enough with each other to go on holiday together...) Carla had somehow managed to wriggle even more information out of Ken.

It was suddenly like she didn't give a hoot about the "rules" anymore.

She didn't tell Ken about her and Peter's affair of course but she also didn't hesitate before she asked him some more.

She really didn't think that Ken thought anything of it of course, she just assumed that he thought that she was making conversation.

Unfortunately for Carla, Ken was slightly on to her odd behaviour.

He observed her and she knew that she craved more information on Peter… he just didn't know why.

Anyway, Ken eventually ended up telling her where Peter went on holiday, he also ended up telling her when Peter had left and just when he was coming back.

He watched Carla closely for a reaction but by now she was almost an expert at keeping her cool.

She just flicked her hair back and nodded as if she was just glad to hear that Peter was doing so well.

By the time Carla went and sat back with Nick, she was overcome with all sorts of different emotions... which is rather insane when you think about it because she wasn't supposed to be feeling anything other than lust for Peter Barlow.

Sadly for Carla… the feelings that she was trying so hard to ignore, got stronger and stronger by the minute.

There was a feeling of anger, one that she felt in the pit of her stomach as Nick cuddled up next to her and rambled on about this nightmare customer he'd had in the Bistro that afternoon.

How could Peter have not told her about this? How could he have spent so many months keeping it from her?

Obviously he hadn't changed a single bit.

There was also a feeling of jealousy, one that was so strong it was a wonder that Carla wasn't turning green with envy as Nick spoke.

She had always despised the idea of any other woman having her hands on Peter and the thought of this Jessica touching him and kissing him made her feel physically sick.

The worst feeling of all... was betrayal.

It was the worst feeling because it was a feeling that was all too familiar.

Carla felt as if Peter was cheating on her all over again… which she also thought was crazy because they weren't even an item.

As crass as it sounds, they were just fuck buddies… weren't they?

She tried her hardest to get past it.

It shouldn't matter to her that Peter had a girlfriend should it?

She tried to think about something else but of course, the more she tried not to think about Peter, the more she did.

The fact that Peter he had the nerve to have a secret girlfriend infuriated her to no end and she tried to tell her self that from now on, she was done and dusted with him.

Then Nick suggested that they should go back to his place.

Normally Carla would have gone straight to Nick's and indulged in the pleasures of his company but this time it was different.

It was as if she simply couldn't stomach the thought of being with Nick right now.

She couldn't think of anything worse than him touching her and kissing her in all those places that Peter had done only a mere week ago.

Nick watched her with bated breath for answer and her excuse ended up being that she was feeling ill and that she just needed some space.

For the first time ever, Nick looked as if he didn't quite believe Carla and for the first time ever... she really didn't give a toss.

Nick tried not to let his disappointment in Carla be so obvious but everyone could see that something was wrong.

The once blissfully happy couple were clearly having trouble.

Michelle had been watching them both from behind the bar for a while now and when Carla was on her way out, she took her by the arm and asked her what was wrong.

She had been suspicious that something was up with Carla for weeks now and the way she had just dismissed the idea of spending more time with Nick, definitely confirmed her theory that Carla was hiding something.

Although just like Ken, Michelle didn't know what Carla was up to.

She instead asked her if everything was okay and if she wanted to talk but Carla just shrugged it off.

She said she was feeling sick and that she just wanted to go home and relax.

Well it wasn't a complete lie, she did feel sick but for all the wrong reasons.

Carla practically ran to her flat and once inside, She told herself that she was going to try her very best to not let Peter and his girlfriend affect her.

She tried not to go onto the Virgin Atlantic website later that night and she tried not to find out when Peter's flight back from Beijing was coming back.

Yes, Carla had even managed to get what airline Peter had flown with, out of Ken.

The rest of her weekend was spent trying to avoid Nick and trying desperately hard to also not think about Peter in the process.

 _"I meant what I said earlier… I won't stop… Even if you don't see me for days… Weeks even… I won't stop coming back for you..."_

His words echoed around Carla's mind and she aimlessly pottered about her flat.

He knew.

He knew she'd probably wonder where he was, he must have done, otherwise why else would he have mentioned the fact that she might not see him for weeks?

It had been just over a seven days now and if Carla didn't know any better, she would have thought that she was having some sort of withdrawal symptoms from Peter.

Nick was used to Carla and her unusual ways by now and he was the kind of guy who understood that sometimes she just needed space, so he didn't bother her too much over the weekend, which seemed to drag on and on in Carla's mind.

Monday morning eventually came and Carla had the urge to send Peter a huge text message. One where she could rant on and on but when it came to actually writing it, it was as if the words just wouldn't be typed.

She then tried to resist the urge to drive to the airport and hang around just so she could get a glimpse of this woman that Peter had been keeping a secret for two months.

Carla was so tempted to see who this woman was, her mind was racing and the only thing that she could think of to calm down was to down a bottle of wine and get hammered.

She thought it would make her feel a little better to know what this woman looked like and to put a face to the name she had been repeating over and over in her mind for the whole weekend.

Resisting temptation was something Carla had never been good at so, sure enough at 2.35pm that very same afternoon, Carla found herself sat in a coffee shop at the airport.

She wondered what the hell her life had come to.

She hated what Peter had done, this wasn't her, this wasn't normal behaviour and Carla genuinely didn't recognise herself.

She knew that what she was doing was slightly on the obsessive side and as she made her way to the arrivals gate, she wondered if maybe she should make a run for it.

It wasn't too late.

She could still go home and pretend as if none of this ever happened.

She could pretend like she hadn't taken the day off work just to practically stalk Peter but she didn't.

She couldn't.

It was like her legs simply wouldn't carry her out of the airport, only closer and closer to that arrivals gate.

The screen showed that his flight had landed and it was then Carla felt her heart begin to pound beneath her black jumper.

She went and stood purposely behind a huge family who were obviously waiting for someone to come home and made sure she had a spot so that Peter wouldn't be able to see her but so that she could see him.

It was half an hour or so before she actually saw Peter emerge, her heart skipped a beat as he got closer and for a moment she totally forgot why she was even at the airport.

For a moment she felt as if she was a normal girlfriend who was waiting for her boyfriend to finally come home. In fact she nearly started waving like a mad woman and she almost called out his name… then she saw Jessica.

Jessica had long, thick dark red hair with pale skin and piercing blue eyes, she was average height but she was curvy in all the right places and Carla couldn't help but feel stunned as she saw this woman walk next to Peter.

Stunned, because Jessica really didn't seem like Peter's type.

Then again Jessica was probably everyone's type because in Carla's eyes, Jessica was perfect.

She looked like she was in her mid forties and was dressed in a pair of skin-tight light blue jeans and a white jumper, her lips were a bright shade of pink and her long nails matched.

Carla couldn't help but look down at her black attire and then back up at Jessica, who seemed to be full of so much colour and so much life compared to her.

The only good thing… the only positive thing that Carla found in this dire situation was that Peter and Jessica weren't walking hand in hand, In fact Peter looked as if he was on a totally different planet to his girlfriend.

He wasn't paying Jessica the slightest bit of attention and Carla prayed that it was because he was thinking about her.

She hoped that he missed her and that all he could think about was when he would be seeing her again.

Peter then stopped walking and turned to Jessica to say something, Carla didn't know what of course but then Jessica smiled at Peter and then leant in for a kiss.

Carla's eyes closed of her own accord because she simply did not want the image of Peter's lips on another woman's to be burnt into her mind forever.

She had only just recently got the image of Peter and Tina out of her head and she didn't need a new one thanks very much.

If Carla had of kept her eyes open, she would have seen that Jessica had actually only kissed Peter on the cheek and that he had barley responded to it as well.

When she opened her eyes she watched as Peter pulled his phone out of his pocket.

She couldn't help but hope that he was going to text her but as he lifted his phone up to his ear and began talking she knew that she obviously wasn't the first thing on his mind after all.

So who was he talking to? Maybe Ken, Maybe Simon or maybe someone else.

Carla's mind did some more wondering as she stood behind the family who were still waiting for their loved one to arrive.

She wondered how Peter and Jessica met.

How long they had been together and just how long Peter had thought he was going to get away with this.

She also wondered if she should maybe make her presence known. If she should just jump out and yell surprise to Peter and see what he would do.

Carla wondered what Jessica would do if she made a sudden appearance.

The again, did Jessica even knew who Carla was, Maybe Peter hadn't talked about her to Jessica, maybe he hadn't even mentioned the fact that he was married… after all, honesty was clearly not his strong suit… right?

In the end… Carla didn't do anything… Of course she didn't, what could she do other than stand and watch?

Anything that she did do would just make her look like a complete stalker and that was something she was desperately trying to avoid.

She wasn't a stalker, she just knew that it was either this or a bottle of wine.

She just stood and watched as Jessica and Peter wheeled their suitcases right out of the airport and it was then that Carla realised that she felt no better about this situation.

In fact… She felt worse.

After being stuck in hours of traffic, Carla had got home in a horrendous mood.

She went to take a long shower but afterwards she looked in the mirror and she couldn't help but compare herself to Jessica.

There were many things that Carla didn't like about herself but her physical appearance, well that had never been one of them.

In fact Carla had always felt very confident about the way she looked… until now.

Upon another look in the mirror Carla suddenly felt totally inadequate compared to Jessica.

Now this feeling was rather alien to Carla because whilst she always had doubts about how emotionally good enough she was for people, she had always been pretty damn sure that she was physically enough.

Even after Tina she never doubted her appearance because Peter had always made her feel like a total goddess.

From very first time they'd had sex he made her feel like she was the only woman in the entire world.

Their first time was Carla's first time after Frank had done the unthinkable and even though Peter had made sure he was incredibly gentle and that he took his time, he had this incredible way of making Carla feel like he was completely under her spell.

She felt like she owned him, captivated him and yet he also made her feel like it was the other way around.

She was his and he enchanted her.

Even now, during their affair he would practically spend hours, worshipping her body, tracing it delicately with his fingers and telling her that she was utterly perfect and now… Well now she felt worthless.

She felt worthless and it was all because of perfect Jessica.

Now we all know that Carla was acting as if she wasn't a cheater herself. She was acting as if she didn't have a boyfriend who lived right upstairs and as if she hadn't been taking guilty pleasures in the fact that she had two men on the go.

As the afternoon turned into the evening, she continued to act like she was a complete and utter innocent party in all of this.

All she could think about was Peter and what she was going to do the next time he paid her a visit.

What she wanted to do was give him a huge piece of her mind and let him know that he was completely out of order but she wasn't sure what would happen if he knocked on her door.

She wasn't sure she trusted herself to resist his advances.

After all, she was supposed to have been mad at him that first time she saw him outside her building and look what happened there.

She was sure he would try to charm his way out of it anyway.

She was sure he'd have a thousand excuses as to why he lied also.

As she got dressed Carla honestly felt as if her whole world had suddenly become consumed by this Jessica and she wondered if she had any idea that Peter was cheating on her.

Thoughts of if Jessica actually knew the real Peter, took Carla over.

She wondered if she knew about his past, about his issues with alcohol, about his endless list of infidelities and if she knew just how dangerous being in love with him actually was.

At first Carla felt bad for Jessica. She felt like maybe she should warn her.

That she should tell her exactly what Peter was like and to tell her to run for the hills.

Carla smiled wickedly as she felt like she had suddenly had a brain wave... Yes, that was what she should do.

Peter so deserved it, she should somehow get in contact with this woman and tell her exactly what her boyfriend had been up to for the past two months.

Carla soon knew that the only reason that she wanted to speak to Jessica and warn her was so that ultimately... she could have Peter all to herself.

After pacing her flat she sat down on her sofa with a large glass of wine and tried to work out how she truly was feeling about everything.

Carla couldn't work out if she was upset or not... although even if she was, She hadn't cried for Peter in the longest time and she had no intention to do it now either.

He had angered her more than anything, he had made her the other woman and she couldn't stand it.

She wanted to be _the only woman_.

Four hours went by before there was a knock at Carla's door.

She stood up and gulped, wondering if it was Peter.

Maybe he had thought of her after all.

Maybe he had been as desperate to see her as she had been him.

She decided she'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

That she'd at least let him explain but...

Of course...

It wasn't Peter… It was Nick, armed with a bottle of red wine and a loving look on his face.

It was a look that showed Carla that she _was_ loved, craved and enough… well for him at least.

Lets just say she didn't think twice about crashing into his arms and letting him lead her to her bedroom.

Nick ended up spending the night and he slept peacefully next to Carla, whilst she tossed and turned and had the worst nights sleep imaginable.

She couldn't fight the images of Jessica and Peter that soon invaded her dream.

There were images of Jessica laying across Peter's chest with her long red hair scattered across his soft skin.

She had images of them both kissing, touching and caressing each other in ways that Carla desperately missed.

She had images of Jessica's back curving upwards, images of their hands gripping the bed sheets and just as Peter was about to call out her name, Carla woke suddenly.

It was then, as she caught her breath and as she realised that she was only dreaming, Carla decided that she really had to end things with Nick.

Because he was a really decent and honest bloke and she was lying next to him in agony over someone else.

Because at first she was only using Peter for sex and now… well now she was unable to focus on her energy on anyone else but him.

She let Nick wake up in his own time, she decided he deserved a slight lay in and it would be unfair for her to disrupt his sleep so that she could then, disrupt his life.

He came into her living room and as she stood up, Nick immediately knew that something was wrong.

Carla asked him to take a seat and said that whilst she was completely grateful to Nick for everything he had done... she couldn't do this anymore.

Nick didn't understand at first. He asked her what she meant and why all of a sudden she felt this way.

Obviously Carla wasn't about to tell Nick that she had spent the last few months cheating on him with Peter because as stupid as it sounded, she didn't want to hurt him anymore than she had to.

It would be bad enough to hear that she was ending things without him having to hear that once again Peter Barlow was the reason for it all.

She told him that she wasn't happy anymore and that she was with him for all the wrong reasons.

He refused to believe Carla at first. He wouldn't let her end it and he told her that what ever it was... they could work through it.

It really did seem as if Nick wasn't going to take no for an answer but then Carla told him that she warned him.

She warned him, she told him that she would end up hurting him and she said that she wished he had listened to her because now it was too late.

Nick paused then, he took a few deep breaths and he eventually asked Carla if she had maybe done something that would hurt him and she guiltily said yes.

She said that she wouldn't tell him how but that she had hurt him bad and that she couldn't live a lie anymore.

Nick begged her to tell him, he begged and he pleaded but Carla knew she couldn't… it would destroy Nick to hear about Peter and as pathetic as it sounded, telling Nick would be against "the rules".

Carla hated seeing Nick cry and ended up crying herself.

Despite everything she still really cared about him and she knew that he really did love her.

Upon thinking about things some more she thought that if it wasn't for Peter... she and Nick would probably have been alright... actually they would have been more than alright and they probably would have had a beautiful future together but of course it was way too late to be thinking that way now.

The break up only made Carla feel even worse about herself and by the time Nick had left her place, all she could think about was seeing Peter.

She had no idea what she would say or do, whether she would keep quiet about breaking up with Nick or tell him everything she had found out.

All she knew was that seeing him would make her feel better, seeing him would help her know what to do next.

She didn't have to wait too long… It was half past six that evening when her buzzer went off.

It was loud, unexpected and it went off again and again until she answered it.

She didn't even have time to speak because the sound of Peter's gruff and angry voice suddenly boomed through her intercom…

"Carla! Let me in… now!"


	10. Blindness

"Carla! Let me in… now!"

She took a deep breath in as she buzzed Peter into her building.

Anyone would be able to tell that he was angry and Carla wondered what it was that had made him this way.

She wondered if maybe something had pissed him off at work and that he had come to hers to let off some steam.

Maybe he had an argument with Jessica or something…

That wasn't the case and deep down… Carla knew it wasn't the case.

She opened her front door to see a furious Peter staring back at her. He was dressed in a white shirt and had his car keys clenched into his closed fist.

He looked fuming yet completely and utterly ravishing.

"What the hell were you thinking Carla?"

So… it was _her_ he was mad at after all.

Carla sighed heavily as she stepped aside so she could let Peter in her flat and as he stormed inside it he said,

"Well… Go on!"

"Go on what?" Carla asked as she closed the door to her flat. She wasn't sure what Peter wanted yet and so she decided to remain slightly reserved for now. She hadn't been home from work long, which meant she was still wearing her black dress and black tights as Peter slammed his car keys down on her kitchen counter.

He rubbed his forehead and bit his lip in frustration before answering her.

A part of him wanted to grab her and show him how much he had missed her over the past week, he wanted to tell her that being in China was an absolute nightmare but the angry and more stubborn part of him was stronger and it made him say,

"What the hell were you thinking talking to me Dad?"

"Oh... that…" Carla said, she had been starting to think that he had found out that she had slightly stalked him to the airport, maybe he had seen her after all and kept cool for his girlfriends sake but no… Ken had obviously told him about their little conversation in the pub.

" _That?_ " Peter exclaimed with a shake of his head.

Carla tried her very best to ignore how sexy Peter was when he was angry, especially in his white shirt and black trousers looking so scrumptious with his beard a lot fuller than the last time that she had seen him.

She still didn't know what he did with himself everyday but she could tell that what ever it was, it required him to dress smartly as he always seemed to look incredibly dapper.

"Why did ya do it then eh? Why did you talk to me Dad?" he continued, exasperated.

"I'm sorry… Did I miss summat?" Carla asked back, her eyebrows furrowing together as she spoke because he was talking to her like a child. "Am I not allowed to talk to your Dad now?"

"No." Peter said blankly, "Not about me you're not."

"N… Why is that?" Carla asked folding her arms and tilting her head. Her tone of voice annoying Peter even more.

"Did we or did we not, talk about the fact that we wouldn't discuss our personal lives?" Peter asked, practically matching Carla's stance as she stood before him.

He had his arms folded too but only so he could keep his hands from reaching out.

Only so he could fight his instincts, instincts that were telling him to just shut up and kiss her.

Instincts that were telling him to not start up a war with Carla and just forget everything but he couldn't.

He couldn't forget that she had been so sneaky and that she had now brought his Dad into things.

His Dad was suspicious, questioning and after everything he was going through... Peter didn't want his Dad to spend his time like that.

"We did… but your Dad wasn't part of that little agreement was he?" Carla asked back, although she was beginning to wonder just what Ken had told Peter about their chat.

She wondered if Ken could tell that she desperately craved some information on his son and that she was going to stop at nothing until she got it.

"Don't be a smart arse Carla… _You_ were the one who went up to him and _you_ were the one asked him about me." Peter said, shutting Carla up for a moment.

She looked down at her feet and hated how foolish she had been. She really thought that she had been totally casual when talking to Ken but obviously not.

Obviously her ridiculous infatuation with Peter was very clear to his Dad, so clear in fact that he felt he should mention it to his son.

"What? You didn't think he'd mention that you suddenly mentioned me after all this time?" Peter said, looking angrier than ever now because Carla hadn't replied.

She was still stood, looking everywhere but at him and he hated it.

"Carla!" He cried, "Speak… say something for god sake!" Something finally gave her the strength to look up at Peter. She read his cross expression and decided enough was enough.

If he was going to have the nerve to be angry… Then so was she.

She couldn't believe how calm she had been acting when she had a lot of things that she was angry about too.

"Let me ask you something Peter…" she began, Peter nodded at her, breathing rigidly and trying his very best to not lose it. "Tell me the truth ere… what are you so mad about?"

"Are you being serious? I'm mad because you spoke to me Dad, you crossed the line…" Peter replied only to have Carla shake her head at him.

"Really? Is it the fact that I spoke to your Dad or… is it the fact that I found out about Jessica?" Carla then unfolded her arms smugly and stared Peter down.

When he was quiet for rather a while, when he was obviously thinking of what to say next, she then spoke again,

"Oh… not so talkative now are we?"

"This isn't about Jess." Peter eventually said, looking down at his feet now and not quite meeting Carla's eyes. His tone of voice was slightly different now, it was a little calmer, it was as if he realised that he was slightly in the wrong too.

"The hell it isn't." Carla said, moving towards him. "You ave some nerve being mad at me when you've been keep your girlfriend secret for months."

"Jess isn't a secret… Had you of asked me if I had a girlfriend at the start then I would ave told you about her." Peter said, truthfully at that as well.

During their affair, Carla had never actually asked Peter if he had a girlfriend, she had just foolishly assumed that he was single.

"And how could I ave asked about her when we weren't supposed to talk about your precious private life eh?" Carla replied, haughtily.

"You didn't even ask me if I was seeing someone even before the rules Carla, so don't give me that."

They were both still standing up, neither one them looking as if they were willing to give up on this feud that they had started.

Both were angry. Angry that the other had done things that the other didn't like and neither of them could see that they were actually both as bad as each other.

It was as if they were blind to what was really going on here and that they were just letting their anger take over instead of something else.

Situations like this, situations where two people have so much passion only end up one of two ways… either in bed or with one of them walking out of the door.

"So… go on… if you were so worried about me having a girlfriend why didn't you ask me that first night?" Peter asked fascinated with Carla's behaviour because _she_ was starting to lose her cool now.

He could tell by her breathing that she was having a hard time with knowing about Jessica… and talking about her too.

"I wasn't thinking clearly that night Peter, but you should ave told me about her." Carla said, standing her ground and not letting Peter win this one.

"Why?... Why should I ave?" Peter asked, shaking his head at her in confusion.

"Because it's wrong!" Carla cried, hating this argumentative side of Peter because even though they were both as stubborn as each other, Carla was the one who always ended up in tears. She could feel herself getting too worked up as she spoke.

"So…" Peter sighed, "Let me get this straight… It's okay for you to cheat on Nick but god forbid I cheat on Jess."

"It's completely different Peter…" Carla began but she was cut off by Peter's sarcastic and over the top laugh.

"Oh… Please… How is different?"

"Because my cheating was upfront, you knew about Nick from the get go and you knew exactly what you were getting your self into... I had no idea about this Jess… you made me the other woman!"

"Well you didn't mind being the other woman when it came to Leanne did ya?" Peter almost laughed, earning one hard smack across his left cheek.

He rocked sideways from the force of Carla's slap and before he could even register what had just happened she had already started speaking again, which was a shame because he was so close to kissing her and making her forget it all too.

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare compare what we did with Leanne to now... I really really loved you back then! I would ave done anything to be with you." She cried, backing away from Peter and shaking her head as her right hand ached with the pain from smacking him so hard. His left cheek had turned pink she had hit him so hard and she couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for what she had just done.

There was then a silence.

One where Carla tried to get her breathing right and one where Peter tried to recover from the smack she had just given him.

He knew mentioning Leanne was a cheap shot and he knew that what was happening right now shouldn't be happening for two people who didn't care for one another.

Of course... we all know that they did care.

They cared too much it seemed, they cared so much that they had fallen so deep into this relationship that they were blind to the fact that they were both as madly in love as each other.

The tension in the room was palpable and neither one of them wanted to be the one to speak again, almost because they knew what ever was said next would steer the next topic of conversation.

Eventually Peter spoke first and when he did he foolishly asked,

"Are you jealous?" He knew he should have just apologised but things were already to complicated and he needed to get to the bottom of the situation.

Carla, who had been staring down at her hands when she heard him speak, looked up at him darkly.

"What? Jealous of the woman that you ave spent the last two months cheating on? As if…" she said, although she knew the way she had been feeling since finding out about Jessica was definitely jealous.

In fact it was more than jealousy…

It almost burned Carla to think that Peter had been on holiday with this woman, that they had obviously shared precious moments together, moments that she couldn't have had with him because they were only supposed to be in it for the physical side of things.

Peter watched Carla as she ran a hand through her hair and tried her hardest to look as if she really wasn't jealous.

She couldn't tell Peter that she had actually seen this Jessica, she couldn't tell him that she had gone to the airport and watched as they got back from China together.

She couldn't tell him how inadequate she felt now she had seen the woman who had replaced her.

"Okay… so maybe you aren't jealous…" Peter began, although he could still read Carla like his favourite book and it was clear to him that Jessica had her totally envious. "Come on Carla… talk to me?" Peter said, finally sitting down at her dining room table and taking at load off. She shook her head at him and refused at first, she refused until he asked her, "Why are you so upset?"

"I… am not upset… I'm livid!" Carla practically shouted, detesting that casual tone of voice he used, like he was asking her a simple question and not why she was so upset about the fact that he had been keeping something from her.

"Well I guess that makes two of us doesn't it?" Peter said, "Although I really don't think you have a right to be angry with me..."

"Oh of course ya don't." Carla scoffed, "Because why would ya? This is you all over Peter, not thinking about anyone else about your self." She paused and then let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "D'ya know what? I'm so mad at you... but I am more mad at me self... because I was stupid enough to believe that you had changed."

"Well guess what… I aven't… I'm still the same old selfish Peter… Is that what you wanted to hear?" Peter said, shaking his head. There was a silence again, one that was almost deafening.

Carla didn't answer him. She didn't answer him because she was too busy trying to ignore the urge she has to push him towards her bedroom and to forget this whole argument had ever happened.

She hadn't even had the chance to tell him that she had broken up with Nick but now, upon thinking about it she realised that she didn't want to tell him.

She didn't want him to have the satisfaction of knowing how much he had gotten underneath her skin.

She didn't want him to know that she had broken up with someone as kind and as decent as Nick… for someone like him.

Besides… he had a girlfriend.

He had a girlfriend who he hadn't broken up with for her and there was no way she was going to be competing with the beautiful likes of Jessica.

"Y'know… I get it…" Peter said, Carla took a deep breath and stared at him.

"Ya get what?"

"You thought… that when I wasn't with you that I was living a right miserable existence... Maybe it were okay for me n you to have sex all night long as long as you could send me packing because you genuinely thought that I was going home alone but now… now you've realised that I had someone of me own, well now you're pissed."

"That is… ridiculous Peter." Carla said with a shake of her head, "Is that what you think of me? That after everything… I want you to be alone?"

"Well what else am I supposed to think when you act this way?" Peter replied making Carla's levels of anger rise again.

"Y'know what…" she said, getting up off her chair and opening her front door. "If you really think that way… I'm done… we're done."

"There isn't supposed to be a _we_ though is there Carla?" Peter said, getting up off the chair he had been sat on. He didn't actually want to leave but he decided to call her bluff. "It was supposed to just be about the sex… n you ruined it… you did that not me… remember that."

" _I ruined it_?" Carla cried, "You're the one who hid his girlfriend… if you had of just been honest from the start then maybe things wouldn't have got this far."

"Okay…" Peter stopped, "Say that first night when we went into your flat I had of stopped n said, Carla... I ave a girlfriend… what would you ave done? Would you ave stopped it? Would you ave told me to pull up me pants n go… no I don't think you would ave… so get of your high horse and remember that me n you… we're the same."

"No…" Carla insisted with a shake of her head, "No we are not."

"Yes we are… no matter how you phrase things you're angry because I've cheated on my other half with you... you're a walking contradiction Carla n the sooner you realise it the better." Peter said angrily, walking towards her front door, still calling her bluff and hoping that she would tell him to stop.

Hoping she'd tell him to stay and forget everything.

He felt bad for keeping Jessica from her, he really did but it was too late to do anything about it now, besides... having Jess around really did seem to make him feel a bit better about himself, it made him not want to rip out his hair so much at the thought of Carla and Nick because he had someone of his own.

"Yeah go on Peter… just walk away… like you always do." Carla said, shaking her head at how easily he seemed to be leaving. "I can't believe that after everything… this is how things are going to end between us." she said, thinking about the past two months and how much they had meant to her. Peter stopped in his tracks and sighed at Carla heavily.

"Well you're the one who said we are done… I can't force you to want me Carla." He said, although over the past two months he was beginning to see that what Carla had for him was a need rather than a want.

"Peter…" she began, "Things are different now… when I think about us I keep picturing her face n…"

"Picturing her face?" Peter suddenly exclaimed, Carla realised what she had said and was about to try and rectify it but he had already read her worried expression. "You… don't know what she looks like… right?"

"No…" Carla scoffed, shaking her head and walking away from her front door so she didn't have to face him for a moment.

"Carla…" Peter said, totally able to tell that she was lying. "Do you know what she looks like?"

"Yes…" She sighed, rubbing her head and hating how ridiculous this was about to sound.

"Carla how on earth?" Peter began, he was totally unable to see how she could have possibly seen what Jessica looked like. Then Carla explained it to him.

"You didn't answer my texts..." She started, "I texted you and... I dunno I just couldn't get over the fact that you didn't reply so Yes I spoke to your Dad and then he told me you were in China... I found out your flight details n I… I went n waited at the arrivals gate."

"You did what?" Peter asked, shaking his head because he genuinely hadn't realise how much he had got under her skin.

It didn't make him feel powerful... it made him feel guilty.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

She wasn't supposed to have properly fell in love again... if she had even fell out of it that is.

"I had to see her… I had to see what she looked like… I know it sounds a little insane."

"A little?" Peter cried, "Carla it sounds flaming mental."

"Yeah I know… but I just had to do it… thinking about her drove me crazy n then when I saw her… It was as if I couldn't get her face out of me mind." Carla explained, her front door was still open and it didn't look like Peter was about to back away from it anytime soon either, which made her more upset.

"N what d'ya think it's been like for me?" Peter asked, "Every time I leave ere, I picture that Nick Tilsley's face, yet you don't see me following you two out n about do you?"

"I know…" Carla said, ashamed, she watched Peter for a moment as he tried to process what he had just heard and then said, "She looks lovely Peter… really sweet… beautiful."

"She is…" Peter swallowed thinking about Jessica for a moment, thinking about why he had agreed to go out with her in the fact place... because she was nothing like Carla... because she was so different that he couldn't be reminded of Carla... because why would he want to be reminded of what he had lost? "She really is."

"So… don't you feel bad?" Carla asked, "Don't you feel bad for what you ave done?"

Peter did feel bad, in fact he felt terrible but he wasn't about to discuss that with Carla, he was still angry at her for talking to his Dad and now he had found out about her little trip to the airport he was struggling to understand what she was doing right now.

Recently she had always been something Peter could almost control but now her behaviour was slightly unpredictable and it made him feel on edge, it made him feel scared of what would happen if he stuck around for too long... nothing in his life right now stayed the same... except for Carla and now she was acting like this he wasn't sure he could hack it.

"Y'know what?" Peter eventually said, "Me n you said we weren't going to talk about stuff like this n I really don't think we should start now."

"Why not?" Carla asked, "Peter why are you so reluctant to talk about stuff with me?"

"Because it's too hard!" Peter shouted, "I don't talk about my life because it's a mess right now... It's complicated n you can't even begin to understand it, and because it kills me to say that my life is a shadow of what it used to be… and before you say it I know that it's me own fault." He sighed and tried to regain some sort of control of his emotions before continuing to speak. "Carla if you can't accept that I don't want to speak about things then… then maybe this should just be it… the end."

He desperately hoped that Carla would disagree. He hoped she tell him she couldn't accept that but that this also shouldn't be the end.

He hoped she would keep pushing him to the point where he had no choice but to speak about what he was going through but she didn't.

Carla couldn't keep it up anymore. Not after finding out about Jessica and going as far as stalking them both at the airport.

Peter was no longer just sex to her… not that he ever really was but she couldn't pretend anymore.

She couldn't act as if their numerous encounters meant nothing to her and as she looked over at her sofa, the place where they had last slept together, she knew that she stupidly wanted no, _needed_ something more from him and he clearly wasn't ready to give her what she needed.

She didn't know what he was thinking and she didn't realise how much he needed her because again, she was blind to it, so she just said,

"Well… I guess this it then."

Peter almost broke down there and then.

He felt his throat go dry and his heart almost stop but he didn't let it show.

"Fine… I mean… you can go back to Nicky Tilsley can't you…" he said, with no idea that Carla had dumped Nick only a day ago. "I mean at least he loves you…"

"N what, you don't?" Carla asked with a sad sniff, "Is that what you're saying? That you don't love me?"

"What I'm saying is that his love... his love is better for you... Carla all I'll do is end up wrecking your life again and... I can't let that happen... which is why I guess I ave to go." he said, not actually answering her question because he thought it was totally obvious to her how he felt.

He didn't know that she didn't have the option of Nick anymore and she didn't tell him either.

The truth was that he was madly in love with the woman that stood before him and vice versa.

He was so in love that he knew he wouldn't be able to get through the next few weeks of his life without her and these next weeks... were going to be crucial.

She was so in love that she was finding it difficult to breathe at the thought of not kissing him again.

"I'll be off then…" Peter said, when Carla didn't react.

He didn't realise she didn't react because she could barley move.

Her lack of words made him angry.

Her lack of emotions made him walk right out of her flat… with absolutely no intentions of coming back.


	11. Shame

Days had gone by since Carla and Peter said that they were done.

It had only been three days but for Carla, it seemed like dozens.

She had barley got any sleep because each time she nodded off, her dreams would torture her until she awoke again.

Jessica was no longer the one consuming Carla's visions, it was Peter and only Peter.

All of the things that he whispered to her whilst they embraced, echoed through her mind and Carla felt like there was no escape from it.

She'd try to drown all thoughts of Peter out by playing loud music and by throwing herself into her work but it wasn't working this time.

It didn't help that every time she looked down at her sofa, the place where her and Peter had last had sex, all it did was make her feel miserable.

Crazily enough, that sofa seemed to be the only place that Carla could find solace.

Her bed was too big, too empty, too lonely and even though the sofa held memories that she couldn't escape, laying on it somehow made her feel closer to Peter, somehow it put her at ease.

Wednesday was spent in anger. At herself, at Peter, at everyone who had attempted to speak to her.

Thursday was spent in tears. Over Peter, Nick and everything that had gone wrong in life.

Both days were also spent with a large amount of wine.

She woke up on Friday morning and stared at the empty glass that had been her only companion and Carla knew that she couldn't miss another day at work.

She knew that she had to at least try to move on.

She heaved herself up off the sofa and got dressed, determined to try and ignore the aching she had inside for Peter.

His reaction to her on Tuesday night had really surprised her and had only made her even more curious about the life that he now lead.

Why was he so private? What else was he keeping from her?

Carla couldn't understand how she could be so easily consumed by one man and it made her feel ashamed.

Ashamed because Peter had meant so much to her and now that she was without him... she felt like nothing.

She also felt incredibly stupid.

Stupid for hanging onto his every word and thinking that this situation would have ended up any other way than her being alone... again.

Those two days, sitting alone in her flat and ignoring Michelle's calls, Carla had tried to work out just when she had fallen so hard for Peter again.

It wasn't straight away she knew that for sure… whilst there had always been that animal magnetism between the pair from the start, Carla had always felt in control of her feelings.

She knew what the deal was and she thought that she could handle it.

She actually thought she would be able to sleep with Peter casually and have none of that emotional baggage brought into things.

It's crazy but is also true.

She couldn't work out exactly when it was when she had become so tightly wrapped around Peter's finger but she knew that it had happened without her knowing it.

Had she of known... had she had foreseen how things would have ended up she might not have let it get this far… right?

Carla has spent countless hours trying to get her feelings in order but as Thursday night approached she knew she couldn't stay this way forever.

Being this obsessed about someone wasn't healthy... no matter who he was and just how good he made her feel.

Anyways back to Friday and word had got around about Carla dumping Nick. She knew it as she walked to work and she saw Nick's brother watching her from a far. He was shaking his head at her trying to figure just out where things had gone wrong.

Carla knew that David wouldn't be the only one looking at her like that and she was right because everyone was wondering why she did it.

Why she'd let a man who loved her so much go?

Why she'd had such a sudden change of heart when at one point it was crystal clear that she was ridiculously happy?

Carla kept her head held high as she approached her building and also as she apologised for being "ill" on Wednesday and Thursday.

It was a rather unnecessary apology because everyone knew about her and Nick by now and they had all assumed that she was in pieces over the end of her relationship.

Carla couldn't stand the way her employees looked at her, in pity, with their eyebrows furrowed, in a way that made her want to run back towards her flat and never return… but she didn't.

She made sure she put one foot in front of the other and she made sure she didn't let a single soul know how broken she was.

She sat in her office and sounded off to her staff over nothing but she didn't actually get a single piece of work done.

She kept going over and over her last conversation with Peter in her head and wishing she had done things differently.

She wished she had told him about Nick, that she had said that the reason she ended it was because she couldn't think about anything else but him.

She wished when Peter had gone that she had run after him and begged him to stay… but she didn't.

She was way too stubborn for that.

That was Carla and Peter's biggest problem; they were both as hard headed as each other.

It came to Friday night and Carla couldn't have been happier to leave her office for a few days. She had expected to be spending the new few days alone but she was wrong.

Friday night was taken over by Michelle, who'd had enough of being ignored and was waiting right outside the factory at six pm when Carla had left.

"Oh… Hi Chelle." Carla said as she locked the door, showing no real enthusiasm to see her best friend stood there at all.

"Oh Hi…" Michelle said, shaking her head at Carla. "Is that all you ave to say to me?"

"I… dunno what you mean." Carla said, staring at Michelle in confusion.

"You've been ignoring my calls for the past three days and then I hear from Sean that you ended things with Nick." Michelle exclaims.

"Oh… right." Carla sighed, she knew she probably should have told her best friend about dumping her boyfriend but her mind had been preoccupied by something else… or someone else.

"Carla what happened?" Michelle asked, as Carla made her way down the factory steps. She hadn't been able to understand Carla's behaviour for weeks and now she had broken up with Nick, Michelle knew that she was definitely hiding something from her.

"What makes you think something happened?" Carla asked, suddenly so suspicious about what everyone around her knew because after finding out that Ken had spoken to Peter, she couldn't be sure who else he might have been talking to.

"You and Nick were happy… so how come you ended things with him? What did he do?"

"Nothing Chelle… he did absolutely nothing." Carla said, hating that Nick was maybe being blamed for the break down of their relationship when it was all down to her. "Why? Are people saying he did?"

"No…" Michelle said, "Not at all, it's just difficult to understand why you ended it when you two were so happy."

"Yeah… well maybe we weren't as happy as I thought…" Carla began, distantly at that because she really didn't want to have this conversation right now.

"Oh bullshit Carla… you n Nick were practically on cloud nine… all you could do was talk about him… well up until a few months ago that is." Michelle tutted, she had been onto Carla's change in behaviour for weeks now and was determined to get some answers.

"Look Michelle… what can I say? Yes we were happy but sometimes happiness is just not enough, sometimes you still have to do what's right." Carla said as she reached her building.

"But Carla I still don't understand…" Michelle began

"You don't ave to understand!" Carla cried, "This is nothing to with you Chelle... you just ave to be ere for me… you are me best mate right?" Michelle nodded at Carla because it was true, she was her best friend… even if she didn't feel like it at the time. Even if she couldn't understand things about her right now and even if she felt like she was hiding something huge. "Right then…" Carla nodded "If you're me best mate then get that I really… really don't want to talk about why I ended it with Nick… not yet, okay."

"Okay…" Michelle nodded.

She got why Carla didn't want to talk about Nick… and she just made sure that she was supportive.

She stayed over at Carla's flat and they watched movies all weekend but they didn't talk about Nick until Tuesday that is.

An exact week since Carla and Peter had argued and ended their affair.

Michelle had called Carla over to the pub for another girly day in but she had a trick up her sleeve.

One that she was sure Carla would thank her for later… If only she knew that what she had planned was the last thing that Carla had wanted.

Nick.

Nick was sat stiffly at the table, in one of his trademark suits, when Michelle brought Carla into the back room of the pub. Carla blinked twice and stared at Nick before turning her attention to her best friend.

"Michelle… what's… going on?"

"Well…" Michelle began, still thinking that she was doing both Nick and Carla a favour here. "I thought that maybe now you two have had a few days apart that you could talk about things… that what ever happened with you both you could work through it… together."

"I told you…" Carla began, trying to stay calm for Nick's sake because this whole thing really wasn't fair on him. "Nothing happened between us… I ended it and that's that… there was no argument, nothing… so this ain't gonna work Michelle."

"I told you." Nick said, shaking his head and getting up.

"I'm sorry you had to come ere Nick." Carla said apologetically as he walked passed the two best friends and left the both to it.

"Nick don't go…" Michelle called after him.

He didn't turn back, he kept walking, dignified as he left the pub.

Michelle sighed heavily as Carla slammed the door shut and turned to her.

"What the hell Michelle?" she cried, "Why would you do that to me?"

"I was trying to help…" Michelle cried back hopelessly.

"How? How on earth did you think that getting Nick over ere and ambushing me like that would help?" Carla asked, knowing that this was probably her fault and that she should have told Michelle the truth a long time ago.

Michelle sat down at the table that Nick was sat at and shook her head before speaking again.

"I'm sorry…" she began, as Carla sat down opposite her agitatedly. "I just thought by giving you both a chance to talk that maybe you two could sort everything out between you."

"There's nothing to sort out though… I don't deserve him and I ended it. Simple."

"Carla… what on earth would make you think that you don't deserve Nick?" Michelle asked, "That guy worships the ground you walk on."

"Yeah… n that's why I had to end it. It wasn't fair on him. Now I know you want to help but you have to know that it's over between Nick n Me … I cannot stress that enough."

"Well I'm just finding that hard to believe to be honest Carla…" Michelle said, shaking her head.

"Why?" Carla exclaimed, unable to see things from Michelle's point of view.

She was unable to see how Michelle could have mistaken her miserable behaviour for being down to her separation from Nick and not down to her seperation from someone else.

"Look at your self Carla… you're pale, you've dark circles under your eyes, you've been a nightmare to be around over the weekend… at work you're even worse than normal, everyone says so... you obviously miss Nick like mad." Michelle said, smugly because she thought she was right.

Well… she was half right.

"Oh for god sake, I don't miss Nick, I miss Peter!" Carla cried, finally biting the bullet and deciding that she needed to reveal all to Michelle.

She couldn't cope with Michelle trying to get her to patch things up with Nick for a moment longer but Michelle didn't get it at first.

"Peter…" She said, shaking her head. "Carla that's ridiculous… Peter hasn't been around in ages n you've been so happy with Nick... how on earth could you miss him?"

"Well that's just it Chelle…" Carla began uneasily, not feeling so much anger anymore but feeling like she might burst into tears at any given moment. "He has been around…"

"What?" Michelle said softly, reading Carla's expression.

"He came back ere one night, we ran into each other outside my building and… well that's why I ended it with Nick." Carla explained, sure Michelle would get it now.

Michelle was quiet for a moment, quiet whilst her mind went places that she really didn't like. She knew the exact effect Peter Barlow had on her best friend and she knew that it wouldn't have taken much for him to have wormed his way back in.

"Carla… I ave this horrible feeling where you're taking this…" Michelle eventually said, "Please tell me that you and Peter just talked."

"I wish I could…" Carla began but then she shook her head. "Actually no I don't… I don't wish me and Peter talked because what happened that night… as wrong as it was… it were… beyond anything that's ever happened to me before."

"Oh Carla…" Michelle said, shaking her head again and moving closer to her. "Look I'm sure it was just a lapse in judgement…" She began but when Carla was the one who shook her head this time, Michelle realised this night Carla was talking about with Peter, wasn't her last.

"Yep…" Carla nodded upon reading her best friends reaction. "I've been cheating on Nick for months with Peter Barlow and now… well now he doesn't want anything to do with me."

"Wait…" Michelle sighed, taking in a breath and trying to process all of this new information in the best way that she could. "I don't understand… I mean where? When? Is Peter even back? I aven't seen him."

"No one has… well except for Si n His Dad." Carla explained, "He lives in central and well as for where n when… My flat… my office… all the time I wasn't with Nick if I'm honest."

"Carla…" Michelle said, speechless.

"I know it sounds cliché and all that but we didn't plan it, we just ran into each other, we had words and the next thing we were up in my flat… It were only supposed to be the once but then Peter came back and... Well ere I am now." Carla said with a hopeless shrug. After some deafening silence Carla sighed and said, "Say something… Chelle please."

"I honestly don't know what to say ere? I mean…if _I'm_ honest… I think this is probably the stupidest thing that you've ever done Carla."

"Yeah…thanks… that's just what I needed to hear right now." Carla mumbled, that feeling of stupidity that she had been taken over by last week coming crawling back to her.

"I'm sorry Carla but… you've just sat there n told me that you've been having an affair with your ex husband for months… I don't know what else you wanted from me." Michelle said, but sympathetically because she could see what all of this was doing to Carla.

Even though hearing about Peter made Michelle feel like Carla was making a huge mistake, she couldn't help but feel relieved.

Carla's odd behaviour over the past weeks had made her best friend so concerned, that she thought she was maybe gambling again or doing something worse so hearing it was just an affair, made Michelle feel a little at ease about things.

"So…" Michelle began after a while of sitting in front of a silent Carla. "Come on Carla… you ave to tell me more about this."

"I know... I just don't know where to start." Carla said.

"The beginning... I mean... does Peter know about Nick?" Michelle asked.

"Yes, I told him about Nick when I saw him outside my place… I thought it would make him angry… I thought it would make him leave but it only seemed to make him more determined to stay… like he wanted to show me exactly what I was missing being with Nick, As I said it was only supposed to be for one night… I woke up and he was gone... then a week later, he turned up at the factory. I tried to be angry with him but seeing him there… in front of me like that… Michelle I can't explain it... he has this power... we ave this power... the man is irresistible."

"So… what? You just started an affair, then n then?" Michelle asked.

"Well…" Carla sighed, "Long story short… the next time we saw each other… I know it sound stupid but we both talked n we made rules."

"Rules!" Michelle exclaimed, earning a nudge from Carla in the process.

"Yes rules…" She nodded, "We were both only supposed to be in it for the sex… it weren't supposed to be about us… we weren't back together or anything like that."

"Oh please…" Michelle said with a dramatic roll of her eyes. She knew both Carla and Peter and she knew full well that they would never, ever, be able to just have a physical relationship.

It was common sense, so how come they couldn't have figured it out for themselves?

"I know… I know…. But at first… it seemed like it worked. Maybe we were both being naïve or stupid… or both I dunno but at first we just had a lot of fun together." Carla said biting her lip.

"Yeah I bet you did." Michelle said with a raised eyebrow and just a hint of a smile this time because once again she knew Carla and Peter, maybe just that little bit too well for that matter... Well enough to know that the sex between the pair of them was a whole lot more than fun. "Go on then… continue."

Carla took a deep breath and started telling Michelle absolutely everything.

She hadn't wanted to at first but talking to someone about Peter did make her feel a bit better about things.

Michelle just let her talk, she didn't want to interrupt too much and even though she still felt like Carla had been stupid, she knew that the situation with Peter definitely sounded like it was too sublime to turn down.

"Anyways… a couple of weeks ago … he came over to me flat and we… well... anyways it were honestly one of the best times we've ever had and he told me that he wouldn't stop… he told me even if I didn't see him for some time that he would always come back to me… I didn't get it at the time… but I guess it was a warning."

"A warning?" Michelle asked, intrigued because the way Carla was telling her what happened had really made it sound like a captivating story, one that she simply had to know the ending to.

It didn't occur to Michelle that at this moment in time, the story of Carla and Peter had been horrendously interrupted.

"Yeah… I didn't hear from him for a week and it got me going crazy… I couldn't eat, sleep or think about anything else so I went n did some digging, I'm not proud of this but I asked Ken about Peter and it turned out… he was in China… with Jessica." The way Carla had said Jessica's name had made it almost jump of her tongue in spite. She still hated the thought of this woman even after a week and a half knowing about her.

"Who is the hell is Jessica?" Michelle cried loudly.

"Peter's girlfriend." Carla said. Michelle's draw dropped open and Carla didn't wait to continue. "I guess I ave no right to be complaining that he had a girlfriend but at the time I was fuming… I was jealous and then... I did something slightly insane…"

"What?" Michelle asked, still totally captivated by everything that she was hearing.

"I went to the airport… I found out Peter's flight details and I went n waited for em."

"Carla!" Michelle shouted, shaking her head because she couldn't believe it.

"I know, I know it's totally ridiculous and slightly on the stalkery side but I wasn't thinking straight. That's what that man does to me Chelle." Carla sighed, still unable to believe she had gone as far as waiting for Peter at the arrivals gate.

"So what does this Jessica look like? Bet she's not as gorgeous as you." Michelle said, in a way like she was suddenly rooting for Carla and Peter. Like this was some high school rivalry and not something Carla had been suffering through on her own.

"She's stunning Michelle." Carla said, swallowing hard and resisting the urge to cry. "Red hair, blue eyes… curvy... everything I'm not and when I saw her my first thought was like… I cannot compete with her."

"Oh Carla…" Michelle sighed, "This is no competition… I mean from what you've told me it sounds as if Peter is still crazy about you and this Jessica was probably just a distraction or something." Carla didn't say it but she hoped that Michelle was right, that Peter was a consumed by her as she was him and that he was somewhere dumping Jessica right now.

"Well what ever she is… my behaviour made me see that I had to end things with Nick. I couldn't do it to him anymore." Carla said, remembering how upset she had made Nick and how he had cried.

"So how come Peter doesn't want anything more to do with you then?" Michelle asked, remembering what Carla had said at the beginning of the conversation.

"Long story short, Ken told him I was asking about him… he turned up at my place last week and he was fuming… he was so angry Michelle… one of the rules we'd had was that we wouldn't discuss our personal lives… he were always so private about his and so the idea that I had brought his Dad into things had really riled him up. Anyways I mentioned Jessica which seemed to get him even more annoyed… we argued and I told him that I was done with him… that was it… he just left… n I aven't seen or heard from him since."

"Wow…" Michelle said, glad that everything about Carla's recent behaviour now made sense. "I gotta admit… as wrong as you and Peter is… it all sounded pretty exciting."

"Wrong?" Carla said shaking her head at her friend. "That's just it Michelle… even after all of this… I can't help but feel like me and Peter were meant to go down this path."

"Carla… I know he's been away for a while but you can't forget why you ended things with him in the first place." Michelle reminded, not that she needed to.

"Of course I haven't Michelle… I know he hurt me… more than anyone has in my entire life other than Fr… well I don't need to get into that but I still can't stop my self but obsessing over Peter… I don't want to feel like this… I'd give anything to be able to brush it all off and say I'm done… but I'm not done with him… and I don't think I ever will be." Carla sniffed and felt tears run down her cheeks as she spoke, Michelle sighed again and put her arms around her best friend to offer her some comfort. "

"So… ave you called him then?" Michelle asked, after a long and supportive embrace with Carla.

"No…" Carla said, pulling away from Michelle and wiping her eyes. "I don't think he wants to hear anything I ave to say… he were really pissed off at me Chelle."

"Yeah n he's probably sat at home thinking the exact same thing about you babe." Michelle said shaking her head. "How is this ever going to get solved if the pair of you wont talk to each other eh?"

"I dunno…" Carla shrugged, "All I know is that... I feel like he has drained the life right out of me... I feel like I'm suddenly incomplete... I need him Chelle"

"Then you really need to speak to him Carla." Michelle insisted as her mother in law, Liz McDonald came into the back room suddenly.

"Carla… there's someone out front asking for ya." she said breezily, not reading Carla's swollen and red eyes.

"Me?" Carla exclaimed, looking at Michelle who shrugged vaguely before looking back up at Liz again who said,

"Yes you." Liz then walked out of the room and made her way back to the bar as Michelle said,

"Come on... let's go n see who it is... then then after we'll get you a large wine and try to sort this situation out eh?"

"Okay." Carla nodded, getting up off the chair with Michelle and going with her to the bar.

Liz was stood talking to the person who was waiting for Carla and pointed at her and said,

"Ere she is..."

"Are you her? Are you Carla?" The person said.

She was a woman and she was staring at Carla in awe.

She was a stranger to Liz and Michelle but not exactly a stranger to Carla, who had seen her before.

It was Jessica.


	12. The Other Woman

This wasn't a situation that Carla could have prepared herself for.

She had never expected to see this girlfriend of Peter's again and yet here she was, sat at a table in the pub with her.

Jessica.

Carla thought that she was even more beautiful close up and at first, she couldn't help but wonder if Jessica had come for some sort of fight.

That Jessica had found out what Peter had been doing with her for months on end and that she was now coming to make a claim on her man.

Now Carla would like to think that she would be able to tell Jessica that she was welcome to Peter Barlow.

That she had no intention of fighting for this man, who had messed her about so much but deep down she knew there was no way that she was going to be able to properly let him go.

She knew that if Jessica was going to start a war with her over Peter that she'd fight until the end... even if she didn't have any intentions of getting back with him.

Even if he didn't want her... He wasn't allowed to be with anyone else.

Michelle had offered to come and sit down with Jessica and Carla.

She didn't know who Jessica was of course but she knew that she was someone that Carla wasn't particularly keen to speak to, so in a true best friend fashion Michelle was ready to be there but Carla just shook her head at her gratefully and took Jessica over to a booth in the corner of the pub.

Jessica was sat opposite her and there was a very long and very uncomfortable silence between the two women in Peter Barlow's life.

Carla racked her brains and tried to think of something clever to say but she couldn't she was too busy wondering what the hell this woman was doing in her local pub and why she was asking for her.

Jessica on the other hand, was the one who was brave enough to break the horrendous silence.

"Do… you know who I am?" She asked Carla, who was staring her with a very stern expression, one that she had put on to show Jessica that she wasn't to be messed with.

After all Carla didn't know this woman from Adam and she wanted to make sure that Jessica knew that she wasn't going to take any of this lying down.

"Yes." Carla said, swallowing after speaking and then nodding. "I know who you are."

"Okay…" Jessica said, taking a deep breath. "Did Peter tell you or?"

"No… I errr saw you both." Carla said stopping there and not wanting to admit about the whole airport thing because she was still majorly ashamed of it. She then sighed and let her face soften a little when she realised that she had been having an affair with this woman's boyfriend and that she probably owed her some sort of explanation. "So... how do ya know about me?" Carla asked, intrigued if Jessica had been doing some digging of her own.

Maybe Jessica has been through Peter's phone and seen messages.

Maybe she had smelt some of Carla's perfume or found one of her hairs and that's why she was here.

These were possibilities in Carla's mind at first but she soon shook them away, she didn't think Jessica seemed like the type to go through phones and clothes... then again Carla wasn't the type to go hunting round airports for a man so it seemed that people could be changed.

"Well… I knew your name. He told me it. I knew you lived around here... well near his Dad and I knew that you were ridiculously beautiful... so I just asked around." Jessica said, "I didn't take me long really."

"Right." Carla nodded, feeling incredibly awkward but also feeling a little thrilled that Peter had obviously told Jessica that she was beautiful.

It was a cheap thrill but it was one that made her feel just that tiny little bit better about things because Jessica had seriously been making her feel totally inadequate.

Then came along another silence. One where Carla tried to work out just how much Jessica knew.

Did she know about the affair? She must do. Why else would she be here?

Jessica seemed to be able to read Carla's mind and nodded at her before saying,

"He told me. Peter. He told me all about you and him. All about the past two months, about the affair."

So, she did know.

Carla looked down at her lap for a second and then back up and into Jessica's bright blue eyes apologetically now.

"Look…" Carla began, "I need you to know that I am so sorry for… everything… Peter... he didn't tell me about you. I had no idea he had a girlfriend. As I said I saw ya both and that was when I found out."

"I know. I know and you really don't have to apologise to me… he played both of us." Jessica sighed, tucking some of her red hair behind her ear and shaking her head.

"Yeah… well it's not the first time he's done it to me… I should ave known better." Carla said, feeling a little more at ease with the situation now. It seemed like Jessica was feeling rather calm about things… for now anyway, Carla still wasn't too sure about her but she could tell that she really didn't seem like she had come to cause trouble.

"I know… he told me everything..." Jessica began, "When I met him... we were at work and he told me all about you and what he did... what he put you through."

"Really?" Carla asked, surprised to hear how honest Peter had been with Jessica and surprised to hear that somehow they both ended up together.

"Yes. I chatted to him first. I approached him... it was all me really. This was in Antigua. We had both been sent out there and I guess I was happy to see someone from home. We got to talking and he just poured it all out to me… He told me all about you. That he cheated on you and that you were the love of his life… well that you are the love of his life…. So I guess I should ave known better too." Jessica explained.

Carla nodded slowly and took all of this information in.

First she wasn't used to being called the love of Peter's life again so that knocked her for six and second she couldn't work out why Jessica would have gotten with Peter after knowing all this information about him and knowing that he supposedly loved someone else.

"So… if you knew all this…" Carla began delicately but Jessica quickly intervened.

"Why did I get with him right?"

"Yeah…" Carla said with a shrug, clutching onto the glass of wine Michelle had given to her for dutch courage, for dear life.

"I don't know… we just got along really well, he's stupidly funny, we were in a foreign country and… it just happened… we both knew it wasn't going to be forever... it was just a casual thing at best." Jessica said, making Carla's eyes suddenly widen.

" _Was_?" she asked, swallowing down some wine and waiting with bated breath.

Did this mean...

"Yes. He ended it with me. In China actually." Jessica explained, raising her eyebrows and looking slightly peeved at the thought.

"Oh charming..." Carla exclaimed, shaking her head at Jessica. "He ended it with you whilst you were on holiday together?"

"Well it wasn't exactly a holiday. I mean it was for work actually. He was supposed to go on his own but they made him take someone with him to help out, so it made sense to invite me I guess." Jessica explained.

It was like the more she said, the more relieved Carla felt.

So he hadn't actually booked a holiday with Jessica after all.

They weren't a serious couple, casual at best and he'd actually broken up with Jessica as well.

It began to seem as if the whole time that he was away and when Carla was thinking that he didn't care about her, that he really did care.

"I knew something was different with him. I think I knew it from the moment you and him slept together again… We'd gone out for a meal and he had this look in his eyes... I guess I just didn't know what is was at first. As the weeks went by though I started to realise that he was hung up on someone else but I really didn't care. I was happy to have him around I spose so I said nothing and then our first night in China he admitted it all." Jessica said, picking up her own drink and sipping it to ease the tension. "I'm not mad at him… not really. I wish he had just been honest but… I knew. He's not totally to blame."

Carla had finished her own wine a good few minutes now. There were two things that she couldn't stand about this situation.

The first was that Jessica was pretty much sticking up for Peter right now. That she was taking part of the blame and that he was going to get away with this.

The other thing that Carla couldn't stand, she couldn't stand or bear to hear anymore about Jessica and Peter's relationship.

Even after everything, she was still incredibly jealous of this woman.

"So… I don't mean to be rude ere Jessica but… what do ya actually want?" Carla eventually asked. Jessica smiled at her in a way that Carla just couldn't comprehend and then said,

"Because I've seen him. I've seen him at work and he is utterly miserable."

"Yeah… well that's not down to me is it?" Carla asked, although she couldn't help but feel guilty, she had been beginning to think that she could have tried harder to keep him around but it was too late to think that way now, so she carried on because she still couldn't get what Jessica was doing. "Besides, you've just found out that the man has been cheating on you for months, why do you care that he's unhappy?"

"Because I still care about him and so do you." Jessica replied.

"Please..." Carla scoffed, not convincingly enough it seemed because Jessica raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes you do... I can tell by the look on your face." Jessica sighed, staring at Carla intently.

"Don't try to read me..." Carla snapped, "You know nothing about me."

"Maybe so but I know Peter." Jessica replied, starting to look a little angrier now.

"No you don't!" Carla cried, shaking her head. "You may think that you know him but you ave no idea! If you really knew him then you wouldn't be sat ere with me acting as if everything is all fine n dandy... You would be absolutely devastated that he had ended it with you. You would be in bits because even though he is a cheating son of a bitch... he is the most amazing man you've ever met and you aren't sure exactly how life is supposed to go on without him." Carla stopped what she was saying and sniffed hard so that she wouldn't start crying in front of Jessica.

She took a deep breath and shook her head as if she was trying to get back to her normal state of mind.

Jessica watched her calm down and then said a very calm,

"Look... I understand you probably think I ave something up my sleeve, that I came to pick a fight but I didn't... I just came here today to tell you not to give up him."

"What?" Carla said hoarsely, "Did he send ya ere? Did he tell ya to say that? Did he ask you to put in a good word or…"

"No." Jessica insisted, shaking her head at Carla. "He has no idea that I'm even here but I am here... and I am telling you that that man loves you and soon... really soon, he is going to need you."

Jessica's words had shut Carla up for a moment.

She sat in front of her and went through them over and over again in her head.

"Why?" she asked staring at Jessica with tears in her eyes. "Why is he going to need me?"

"Look… I… shouldn't." Jessica began making Carla slam her hand down on the table in front of her.

"Are you being serious?" Carla cried, "You sit there n tell me that Peter needs me but that you're not going to tell me why?" For weeks she had known that Peter was keeping something from her, she didn't have a clue what and she was beginning to get rather concerned about it, Jessica wasn't helping the situation either.

"Yes… I really can't tell you. I swore I wouldn't tell anyone. I'm a woman of my word Carla. I still work with the man and I don't want to make things more awkward then they already are." Jessica began again.

"Yeah... because this is awkward for you?" Carla rolled her eyes at the red head, who was sat opposite her.

"He'd hit the roof if I told you Carla... you know what he's like." Jessica said, making Carla start to get cross again, making it seem like they had some sort of connection."You know how stubborn he is… and from what I can tell... you and him are like two peas in a pod... all I can tell you is that he's going through a hell of a lot and that I really think that he could do with your support..."

There was another silence.

One that was full of short and sharp looks.

One that Carla was going to end by just getting up and walking away from Jessica but before she could she heard Jessica say,

"The last thing either of us wants from this is for him to start drinking again."

"He..." Carla swallowed, "He told you about that n all?" She asked, stunned once again.

"Yes... I think it got quite lonely for him out in Antigua and talking to me was like... some sort of release for him" Jessica explained, "I know that he hurt you... I can't even begin to imagine what on earth he put you through... all I know is that right now... he needs someone and that someone is not me."

Carla still looked infuriated.

She still looked like she wanted to get up and walk right off but she couldn't help but let her face soften towards Jessica once more and say,

"He gets under your skin doesn't he?"

"Yeah… he really does." Jessica said, with a soft smile. "He's a good guy Carla... I know you don't need me to tell you that because I'm sure you've seen it in him plenty of times before." She then finished her wine and got up from her seat. Looking like she was the one who was going to be the first to leave. "I'm sorry for intruding your day like this... I just had to meet you and tell you that me and Peter were over… the rest is up to you… I just really really hope that you talk to him soon."

"Thanks… I guess." Carla said, shaking her head in disbelief as Jessica gave her an awkward goodbye.

The moment she left the pub, Michelle ran over to Carla and sat in the seat that Jessica had been in.

"So…?" Michelle asked breathlessly, "Who is she?"

"That was Peter's girlfriend Jessica." Carla said blankly. Going over everything that she had just been told in her head and not paying Michelle too much attention.

"What?" Michelle cried,

"Or… ex-girlfriend as it seems." Carla said, exhaling and then looking at Michelle properly.

"Ex?" Michelle said, "So he dumped her… or she dumped him? Carla come on I need answers babe."

"He ended it… he told her everything." Carla explained, still in awe from Jessica's arrival to the pub and everything that had come with it.

"So what the heck was she thinking coming ere?" Michelle asked in confusion.

"She wanted to tell me not to give up on him… to tell me that he's going through something and that she wants me to be there for him." Carla said, Michelle just sat in silence for a moment and stared at Carla. Eventually she moved closer to her best friend and asked,

"So… what are you gonna do?"

"I dunno Chelle…" Carla sighed, "I… _really_ don't know."

"Okay, let me rephrase that… what do you want to do?" Michelle asked, watching her best friend and being able to tell that she was still besotted with her husband.

"I want… I want to talk to him… I should talk to him…" Carla nodded, "Right…? Chelle help me out ere."

"Carla… I can't make this decision for ya." Michelle said sympathetically, "This is something you have to figure out for yourself."

Michelle was right. She couldn't tell her what to do.

So Carla went back to her flat and tried her hardest to figure it out for herself.

She went over everything that she had found out today and all she could think about was this "thing" that Peter was supposedly going through.

Whatever it was sounded serious and like something that was really affecting his life and Jessica was right, Carla really really didn't want Peter to start drinking again.

That was what gave Carla the strength to pick up the phone.

She had to use the phone because she had no other option.

She didn't know where he lived, where he worked or even where he was right now, so calling him was her only option.

As she pressed the call button on her phone she wished that she had of got Peter's address.

She wish she had asked Jessica for it before she left and most of all she wished that she knew what on earth she was going to say.

Peter's phone rang and rang and Carla knew she would have to end up leaving a voicemail.

First all of all she thought that she should just tell him about this afternoon.

That she should just tell him she'd spoken to Jessica but then Carla didn't want to make things more awkward for her after she had been so nice, so she just left it at that.

Carla then wondered if maybe she should leave Peter a short and sharp message instead, one saying that she definitely needed to speak to him and that he better not mess her about but then she realised it might come across as angry and it might make the situation even worse.

Carla dithered as she knew the phone would stop ringing any moment now.

In the end… When his message tone started, She decided to just speak from her heart.

 _"_ _Peter… it's me._

 _Look… I understand why you're not answering my calls. The argument was... well it was awful._

 _We both said stuff I'm sure we didn't mean._

 _I understand why you walked out and left me. I should ave begged you to stay and I didn't._

 _I don't blame you for going… maybe we both needed that time apart but it's been days now… days._

 _I… well if I'm honest..._ _I can't stop thinking about you… I miss you._

 _I should have told you… I ended it._

 _I ended it with Nick before you came back from China. I was too scared to admit it before but I ended it with him… because I don't love him… I still love you._

 _I really do._

 _I love you like mad Peter Barlow and despite the fact that my love for you is totally insane and stupid… it feels so good to admit that that's how I feel._

 _Now I don't expect you to come running._

 _I don't even expect you to call me back._

 _but Peter… I know you're going through some stuff... stuff you won't tell me about and I really really want to help you._

 _I accept that you might not want to talk but... Peter..._

 _I'm ere… I'm ere and I'm not going anywhere so if you need me… Just… let me know._

 _Bye."_

That was the message Carla left on Peter's phone.

That was the message that he played just moments after it had been left.

He played it four times in a row in fact.

He wanted to reply.

He wanted to reply more than anything in this world.

He wanted to call her straight away but he couldn't.

He couldn't even begin to think about Carla right now.

He had managed to get her out of his head today.

Well not completely but she was at the back of his mind, ready to emerge when he was alone and allowed to break down.

When he was allowed to be weak and let go of that strong persona he had been putting on for weeks now.

It was neither the time nor the place for Peter to have a melt down.

He couldn't lose it right now.

He couldn't lose it because of where he was and who he was with, because of who was sitting across from him and who was depending on him right now.

It would be selfish for Peter to start getting himself in a state over Carla right now.

Someone needed him not to be selfish and that is why he just shook his head and put his phone away...


	13. Two Sides

Well… as the saying goes, there are two sides to every story.

First of all…

It's important to understand that Peter never meant to hurt Carla.

He hadn't planned any of this.

He hadn't meant for her to fall in so deep.

He didn't think that she could have been so foolish to let herself get so caught up.

His return to Weatherfield had truly been just to visit his Dad.

He was on his way over to Number one when he had first seen Carla.

She was walking towards her building in a leather jacket and black dress and looked so incredible that he couldn't help but follow her.

He had reached out to tap her on the shoulder, just to say hello when the next thing he knew, they were kissing.

She had initiated it.

She had been the one who had practically thrown herself at him and whilst he knew she must have mistaken him for someone else, he let her kiss him passionately.

He let her kiss him and by the way that she kissed him, he knew that she had suddenly realised who he was.

Something had changed in the kiss, it was like it had intensified because she knew it was wrong.

Peter knew he shouldn't have been kissing Carla.

He had a girlfriend who was lovely and who didn't deserve to be treated this way but then again this… Well this was Carla.

His Carla.

She had her hand around his neck and her tongue in his mouth and there was no way he was going to stop it.

This kiss had reignited something inside of them both.

It was as if a spark went off inside them and made them both realise just how much they had missed each other.

This kiss reminded Peter how much he still loved Carla although upon thinking about it, he had never really forgotten... it was more like he had pushed it to the back of his mind.

She stopped it.

She stopped the kiss.

She pulled away from him and looked utterly stunned to see Peter stood before her.

Of course you know how the rest of it went…

They talked... they talked a lot a first.

She took great delight in telling him all about her new boyfriend Nick Tilsley and he took great delight in winding her up about it as much as he could.

He knew the power he had over her and suddenly this visit to his Dad's didn't seem so important any more.

More words...

More lingering and longing looks came before they were kissing roughly again.

They rushed up to Carla's flat in no time and Peter took complete pleasure in making her say and do things that he knew she shouldn't.

He made her say that she loved him.

He said he just wanted to hear it... only for one night.

The collapsed onto the bed together, time after time and as Carla fell asleep next to him Peter wondered about letting himself stay too.

He thought about curling up next to her and pretending as if this was like the good old days.

Peter sighed as he knew that too much had happened between them for him to be that naïve.

He also knew that Carla had been very clear that she had wanted what happened between them to be for only for one night, so he got up and wrote that note that he had left on her kitchen counter.

The note that told her that one day he might be back.

He hadn't actually been serious with it.

He hadn't actually thought about coming back to see Carla, he knew it wasn't fair on her and he knew that he had Jessica to think about, so at that point, as far as Peter was concerned he wasn't going back to Carla's.

He wasn't going back until he heard the news.

Until that Friday when he had eventually got to his Dad's and heard the words,

"Peter… I'm ill."

At first Peter thought his Dad was talking about a cold or something.

That this was something he'd get over quickly but when he saw the look on his Dad's face, Peter knew this was more than that.

"I was feeling rather rough for a few days and then... well then noticed a lump…" Ken began.

That was it.

That was all he had to say to make Peter petrified.

Ken went on all the same.

He explained that he had noticed swelling in certain parts of the body and that he had been to the doctors in the week.

He explained that the Doctor had given him an examination and that he had to go to the hospital for some further tests on Monday.

Peter took all this information in as his sister Tracy entered the house.

She was stunned to see her brother sat at their dinning table and could instantly tell that something was wrong by the look on his face.

Ken started to explain everything again but at the end, he said that he really wasn't worried.

He said he was sure that the tests would go fine and that they would all be laughing about this soon.

He couldn't have been more wrong to be honest...

Monday came and Peter had insisted on going to the hospital with his Dad, who hadn't told anyone other than him and Tracy about what he had found.

Ken didn't want to worry the rest of his family and friends and if he was ill, he didn't want their pity, so Tracy and Peter agreed to keep it between them three.

As Amy and Simon came over that night, Peter and Tracy tried their very best to act like normal.

They tried to ignore the fact that their Dad might be seriously ill but it was beginning to become increasingly difficult for Peter to do so.

Even though his relationship with his Dad had sometimes been turbulent, Ken meant the world to Peter.

He depended on him a lot and He couldn't bare the thought of not having his Dad around.

The evening soon turned into night and Peter had gone out for a cigarette to calm himself down, when he saw that the factory lights were on.

From that moment on all he could think about was Carla.

He wondered if she was in there right now, he wondered what she was doing and how she had been since the last time he had seen her.

Peter soon found that his legs were carrying him towards Underworld of their own accord.

He didn't need a cigarette to calm him.

She could do it.

She could calm him down just with one look.

As he walked up the step to the factory, Peter took in a deep breath and made sure that he composed himself properly before walking in.

After all, he didn't want Carla to see the state he was in… if she was even in there that is, which of course we all know that she was.

She tried to resist him at first.

She tried to pretend as if she didn't want it but Peter saw through her little act and soon enough they were having sex on her office desk.

It was something that they had done plenty of times before but to Peter, this intimacy with Carla was something really special.

It made him feel at ease.

It made him begin to feel like he would maybe be able to get through all of this stuff with his Dad if he at least had Carla as a distraction.

Afterwards and on the steps which were inside the factory they had a smoke together, a conversation and then a moment.

A moment that made Peter worried that Carla would get too close, that she'd begin to ask him questions that he really couldn't answer.

He couldn't explain to her about the things that he had been through tonight because his Dad had made him promise not to.

So then Peter decided that maybe he needed to push Carla away.

He didn't want to but he knew all it would take was a few looks, a few words and then he'd been spilling it all out and anyways, no one knew if Ken was actually serious ill or not yet.

Peter started winding Carla up again, teasing her about Nick and just how many times she had cheated on him, which led to Carla saying,

"D'ya know what Peter… just go will ya… You got what you wanted didn't you? What are you still doing ere?"

He could tell that he had upset Carla, he could tell by the look on her voice and the tone in her voice.

He went to walk away from her but as she sat down on the stairs looking totally ashamed of herself, Peter couldn't help but turn around and walk towards Carla again.

He sat with her and they spoke again.

They spoke and had another moment before they kissed again.

Their kiss obviously turned into something more and even thought it was incredibly difficult for Peter to leave Carla at the factory, he did it anyway.

He knew his Dad would be wondering what had happened to him and that he would be not too pleased to find out that he had been indulging in the pleasures of Carla's company.

Friday soon came and so did Ken's next hospital appointment.

The tests the Doctor's had done the other day had come back and they wanted to discuss them with Ken and his family.

Peter and Tracy made sure that they accompanied Ken of course and the Doctors told Ken that he now needed to have a CT scan.

Ken nodded along to all of this of course, having done previous research and expecting something like this to happen.

He calmly went for his scan and left Peter and Tracy in the waiting room where they both sat next to each other in silence.

It was a silence that Peter spent with his arm around Tracy and one where his gentle back rub tried it's best to assure her that everything would be all right.

Ken was told that his results would be back in a week or so but that it may take longer.

Peter and Tracy sighed upon hearing this news knowing that it would be a horrible waiting game, a waiting game that was made better for Peter by a certain woman he had been missing since he had left her at the factory last week.

He didn't go and see her that night though, he knew he had to stay with his Dad and as always he made sure he wasn't seen because if people knew he was back it would start to raise suspicion.

He saw her the next night, she was dressed immaculately and was ready to go for a night out with Michelle when he had arrived.

She asked him where he had been and he replied with,

"Busy."

That was all he could say… busy.

He hoped she would just take that for answer and let him in and luckily she did.

This was the night that Carla and Peter's stolen nights became a habit of theirs but not before Carla had decided to make some rules.

Rules that had actually made Peter feel really relived.

No talking about personal lives.

No "Sleeping" together.

No talking about Love.

No telling anyone.

Those were the rules that made Peter actually believe that he and Carla could carry on with their affair and not get "romantically" involved.

Of course it didn't take long for these rules to be broken and for lines to be crossed.

Carla would often try to slip in a small comment and Peter's life.

Whether it be about his Dad or how his day had been, she had always done it very slyly and depending on Peter's mood he sometimes would let just a tiny bit of information free but it was nothing that Carla actually found useful… nothing that she would be able to properly find out about his life.

She wasn't the only one who broke the rules though.

Peter often found himself drifting off to sleep underneath Carla, who would always wake him up shortly afterwards and insist that he went home.

He hated going home from hers with a passion and each time he left her building, he wished he had the courage to be honest with her and tell her how much he wanted her back.

Being in Carla's presence was like an addiction for Peter and… well we all know what Peter Barlow is like with addiction.

He craved her pretty much every moment of every day and what he didn't know was that this was soon becoming the way that she felt about him.

Peter was sure that if he told Carla how much he had become taken with her again, if he told her how much he deeply loved her and how much he was desperate for another chance to be hers again, that she'd just brush him off and say that it was too late.

He didn't know that she was thinking about him too, every moment she was alone and even those where she wasn't.

He was sure that their secret relationship was the best that he was going to get.

She was with Nick Tilsley after all and Peter was sure that there was no way that she'd dump a man like Nick for him, so he made his peace with their secret sessions and stolen moments.

As Ken went for more tests, Peter went along to each one.

He would sit at the hospital and make sure that he was there for his Dad and then on his way home he'd make a stop around Carla's for his fix.

Weeks turned into months and then Ken had to go into hospital to have biopsy done on one of the lumps, so that the doctors could use it to find out more.

Peter was extremely worried about his Dad, now more than ever, especially because he knew that a biopsy meant that what his Dad had was very very serious and that what his Dad had could be cancer.

Worrying about all of this and keeping it all to himself made Peter's mind go to some dark places, he desperately craved a drink as well as Carla now and having no one to talk to about it made him feel lonely than ever.

It made him want to run to the off licence and purchase the nearest bottle of alcohol but instead he found himself confiding in Jessica.

Her Dad had been diagnosed with cancer a few years back and he had survived, So Peter though that talking to her would help the situation, especially as she didn't know anyone on the street and that it wouldn't get back to anyone.

Even though he was sleeping with and ridiculously in love with someone else, Peter still really cared about Jessica and felt as if he could lean on her a little during this situation.

She wasn't able to make him feel better about it obviously but talking to someone other than Tracy about things gave Peter a little bit of release.

Most of his release came from Carla though and after his Dad's biopsy, Peter visits to Carla became very very often… almost every other day in fact.

It was probably when they started text messaging each other again when things really started to change between the two.

The personal life rule sort of flew right out of the window because these mini conversations allowed them to reveal little snippets of information without being face to face.

Peter would make sure each and every text message that he sent Carla was one he had read over a few times and always made sure it was perfect before pressing send.

He would then always find himself then being totally distracted from what he was doing and just waiting for Carla's reply.

Now, the fact that Carla and Peter could now flirt and tease each other without even being in the same room, meant that their desires were heightened and obviously a _lot_ their messages were on the sexual side of things. Obviously the texts were full of a lot of things that wanted to do to each other but there was the odd time that they had a proper little conversation.

The odd time they would forget that they had this heart wrenching past and these messages that were being exchanged, meant a lot more to Peter than Carla could ever know.

She was still utterly clueless to the fact that his Dad was ill and that these little sentences kept him from completely losing control.

Carla's messages were a huge distraction from his Dad's illness and each time he got one he revelled at the idea of Carla taking time out of her day to message him and see what he was up to… even if it was just because she wanted him for selfish reasons, it meant that she was thinking of him.

One night, a day or so before their last time, at around three am, Peter had received a message, which said,

 ** _"_** ** _Are you awake?"_**

He was awake and he wasn't surprised to see that Carla was too.

Even though it was a Tuesday she was the type of person who stayed up very late, she'd be watching TV or working because she was the type of person who found it very hard to get to sleep.

Peter smiled at his screen and text Carla back straight away,

 ** _"_** ** _Yes, I am…What cha doing up this late?"_**

 ** _"_** ** _Watching me box sets… and anyways, I could say the same about you to be honest."_**

Peter smirked and even though this constituted a conversation about their personal lives he wrote,

 ** _"_** ** _That's true, I can't sleep so I'm in me living room watching Takeshi's Castle."_**

Peter couldn't help but chuckle to him self as he sent send and he knew that Carla would be rolling her eyes at the fact he was up watching his favourite Japanese game show.

 **"** ** _Oh god Peter really? I would ave thought you had grown out of that ridiculousness by now."_**

Peter nodded at Carla's reply and had called her not being impressed with his TV show of choice.

 ** _"_** ** _Ha ha… You know me, I'm just a big kid at heart, besides I need the distraction and this show always reminds me of Simon, he used to love it."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Yeah he did. I remember I'd come home to you two howling at the television because some idiot dressed in what looked like pyjama's had got knocked of that bridge thing… what d'ya need the distraction for?"_**

There was Carla asking Peter an outright question about his life again, asking him why he wanted a distraction and once again, even though he really wanted to, he couldn't tell Carla.

His Dad had still managed to kept everything quiet for now and he really didn't want people knowing anything was wrong until they had to, so Peter only replied with,

 ** _"_** ** _Ahhh you can't deny bridge ball is a classic game… I remember I even saw you snicker at it once."_**

Peter wrote, remembering the rare times that Simon would happily allow Carla to sit with them and when one night she had let them both watch the show in question.

 ** _"_** ** _Hmmmm I don't recall such an event… but hey what ever makes you happy I spose, also I see you dodging my question Peter… fair enough but I'm just wondering how bad things ave got for you to be up watching that trash :P "_**

 ** _"_** ** _Oh and what are you watching eh? Bet it's something real sophisticated."_**

Peter replied, wondering just what Carla was watching and wondering if she ever did finish that LOST box set without him.

 ** _"_** ** _Actually since you ask, I've just finished Season two of Scandal if you must know."_**

Peter frowned at the words on his phone and then typed out his reply before hitting send. He didn't even think about what he was writing to Carla anymore, the conversation just flowed freely.

 ** _"_** ** _Scandal? Never heard of it."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Course ya avent because you my friend are a bit of a Granddad when it comes to stuff like TV aren't ya?"_**

 ** _"_** ** _Ha ha very funny… What's this scandal about then? I might like it?"_**

 ** _"_** ** _Ahhh I doubt it, I mean it's all American politics n stuff, there are no guys in it flying into walls n launching their selves into the air by a pole I'm afraid."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Eh, Takeshi's Castle is one of my guilty pleasures thank you very much… y'know something that ya like even if it is a bit naff... I bet you've got loads of em._**

Peter replied, getting up and putting on his kettle so he could make himself a cup of tea.

Tomorrow was Friday and the day that Ken's biopsy results would finally come through.

It was a day that filled Peter with dread and talking to Carla once again was a real distraction so he decided that he would do everything in his power to talk to her as long as possible.

Her reply came quickly and made Peter feel his heart actually flutter,

 ** _"_** ** _Oh you don't have to tell me about guilty pleasures Barlow… My biggest one is you."_**

Peter swallowed hard at Carla's response but tried to reply as casually as he could,

 ** _"_** ** _Eh are you calling me naff? I'm offended to be quite honest with ya Carla."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Hey… don't be like that, Oh god I really didn't want ya to take it that way at all."_**

Carla's reply came fast, in under a minute in fact and as Peter began to make himself a brew, he wrote.

 ** _"_** ** _I'm kidding woman, relax. So are you starting season three of this Scandal now are ya?"_**

 ** _"_** ** _Nah I'll leave it there for tonight, might channel hop for a bit, see if there is anything decent on."_**

 ** _"_** ** _Well there is another episode of Takeshi's Castle on it a bit… go on put it on, I dare ya, we can watch it together."_**

Peter had expected Carla to turn down this idea straight away but strangely enough she didn't and she replied with,

 ** _"_** ** _Okay."_**

They stayed up together until four am watching the famous Japanese TV show together and texting each other at the same time.

Peter doesn't remember falling asleep but he awoke to two unanswered messages on his phone.

The first one was about something that had just happened on the TV and when he hadn't answered, Carla had sent,

 ** _"_** ** _So since ya aven't replied to my last message, I'm assuming you've fallen asleep on your sofa, I hope so, I mean as fun as tonight has been I'm glad you're getting some sleep._**

 ** _Night x"_**

It was only three short sentences but Carla's last message had really warmed Peter's heart and had put him in a good mood.

Unfortunately for Peter, his good mood only lasted for an hour or so.

Ken's hospital appointment was at nine forty five am.

He was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A uncommon type of Cancer, which the doctors had told Ken he had actually been suffering from it for quite a while now and that he just hadn't noticed it yet.

Ken nodded as he was told news that he had really been expecting.

Tracy burst into tears whilst Peter just stared ahead for a while.

His Dad had cancer.

No… he couldn't have.

This was his Dad, even after everything that they had been through together, Ken was almost like Peter's rock.

The Doctor's gave Peter and Tracy to fully take in the news and then when they were ready began to describe Ken's condition.

He said that Ken didn't have an aggressive type of the illness and that he would soon be starting some chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat it.

He explained it all and that night, after Ken had insisted that Peter needed to go home and that he didn't want him to spend the evening worrying, Peter texted Carla.

Casually and in a away that he had done many a time before,

 ** _"Where are you right now gorgeous?"_**

She replied very quickly with,

 _" **At home… why?"**_

Peter took a sigh of relief when he read that Carla was home and before he could even process what he was doing, he had already written out his reply and had pressed send,

 ** _"And you're staying at home? Right?"_**

For once he didn't care what Carla was doing, if she was going out he'd follow her, he had to see her, he had to be with her tonight.

Thankfully Carla replied with,

 ** _"Well I guess that depends on you doesn't it?"_**

Peter tried to be jokey with it, he tried to be all casual as he sent,

 ** _"Does it now?"_**

It seemed Carla wasn't too impressed with his reply and responded with something that had Peter almost run towards her flat.

 ** _"You know it does… don't play games with me tonight Peter, I avent the patience for it. Just tell me if you're planning on coming tonight… cause I will be… with or without your help xx"_**

Peter smiled for the first time that day since waking up to Carla's message this morning and wrote his reply, before having a quick cigarette.

 ** _"Ha ha I see what you did there… I'll be at your place soon… very soon. xx"_**

After his cigarette he turned up at Carla's and well you know the rest.

Crazily enough it was when they were in the middle of sex that he remembered about his trip to China for work on Monday.

He remembered how earlier his Dad had mentioned it and insisted that he should still go.

At first Peter wasn't having any of it but Ken insisted that he should not let his illness affect his job and that he would disapprove very much if he didn't go.

Peter didn't want to upset Ken anymore, which is why he was still going, Although a week without Carla was something that was beginning to scare the shit out of him and he wanted to make sure she knew he'd be back soon, which is why as they lay together on her sofa he said,

"I meant what I said earlier… I won't stop… Even if you don't see me for days… Weeks even… I won't stop coming back for you."

"Good." Said Carla grazing her bottom lip with her teeth as she looked down at his chest.

The beautiful sound of Carla's reply had made Peter feel a little more at ease but of course he hadn't quite expected what happened next to have happened.

First he had broken up with Jessica in China.

He had been trying to think of ways to do it for a long time and when she approached him and asked him if there was someone else he couldn't lie to her no more.

In a strange way, it was probably the best break up that Peter had ever had and it meant that he was free to try and properly win Carla back.

Only he didn't know what was going on back home.

That whilst he was in China he had left a very frustrated Carla behind, which led her to start looking for information and eventually speaking to his Dad.

He found out during a casual conversation at Number One, one where Ken said,

"Oh… by the way. I spoke to Carla last week, she came up to me in the pub… she was the one who mentioned you actually and anyway I regretfully ended up telling her about Beijing… and Jessica."

"Wait… she came up to you?" Peter replied, strangely in Ken's eyes. He thought Peter would be more concerned about the Jessica part.

"Yes… she asked me if I'd heard from you… she was very interested actually… especially when I mentioned China and Jessica of course."

"Oh… right." Peter said, trying to make sure he kept his cool.

Trying to make sure he didn't show his anger to his Dad.

"Is everything okay Peter?" Ken asked, looking worried now. "Have I done something wrong?"

"No!" Peter insisted, "Of course not." he said hating that his Dad was concerned about him at a time like this.

Now Peter wasn't actually sure why he had become so angry, maybe it was because he knew Carla wouldn't be pleased to find out that he had a girlfriend.

Maybe it was because they had rules in place to stop this kind of thing from happening or maybe it was because he Dad had been saying how proud he was off him and the last thing he wanted was for his Dad to find out that he had been having yet another affair… even if it was with Carla.

Peter let his emotions truly take over him and reacted in a way that he wished he hadn't.

He stormed around Carla's flat the moment he got the chance and there they had that rather explosive exchange.

One that ended with the pair of them saying a whole lot of stuff that they didn't really mean and them not saying stuff that they really should have said instead.

That was the last time they had seen each other.

That was the last time they had spoken to each other.

That was the last time he had heard her voice… until today.

Until her voicemail message, which ended with,

 ** _"_** ** _I know you're going through some stuff... stuff you won't tell me about and I really really want to help you._**

 ** _I accept that you might not want to talk but... Peter..._**

 ** _I'm ere… I'm ere and I'm not going anywhere so if you need me… Just… let me know._**

 ** _Bye."_**

It was a message that he really wanted to reply to but not just yet because he was sat with his Dad at the hospital as his Dad was preparing to begin with his first session of Chemotherapy.

Tracy hadn't come because she said she just couldn't face it.

His Dad was being incredibly brave through all of this and Peter knew he had to be as equally as strong.

As Ken was hooked up to the machine in front of him, Peter tried his best not to let how scared he was show.

He figured if he was this scared then his Dad must be a million times more.

Peter sat there with his very best "I'm okay." look plastered on his face and as Ken tried to make some sort of mundane conversation, Peter tried very hard to join in with it.

He tried to smile when his Dad cracked a joke and he tried to nod a long with what else he was saying but it was clear that Peter was starting to slowly lose control, which is why Ken sighed heavily and said,

"So, what are your plans after this Peter?"

"I dunno… I'll probably just come back to yours." Peter shrugged looking down at the drip that was running from Ken's arm and into a small machine, which was next to him.

"Do you know what I think that you should do?" Ken asked, watching his son closely.

"No." Peter looked up at him and shook his head.

"I think that you should go and see Carla." Ken said, almost knocking Peter right off the chair that he was sat on.

"Carla…" he began but his Dad shook his head and said a resounding,

"Peter… I know."


	14. The Leap

"Peter… I know."

Peter swallowed uncomfortably as his Dad sat on an armchair next to him.

At first he thought about just telling the truth, owning up to his secret life with Carla and asking his Dad how on earth he knew but instead Peter foolishly decided to say,

"What are you on about Dad? I aint spoken to Carla in months…" Ken shook his head and sighed heavily before saying,

"Don't even try it Peter… I know." Peter nodded slowly and exhaled as he accepted the fact that his Dad wasn't going to let up.

"Okay… I mean… what exactly d'ya know ere?" Peter asked, wondering if his Dad had maybe seen him lurking around and waiting for Carla or wondering if it was her who had maybe told him.

"Well…" Ken began with his eyebrows raised, showing no fear from the Chemotherapy that he was now enduring. "Let's begin with the fact that it's written all over your face shall we?"

"Dad…" Peter begun but he was soon interrupted.

"Peter… I also saw the look on Carla's face when she asked me if I'd heard from you that day… It wasn't the look of someone who was just asking about you casually… it was the look of someone who was desperately in love." Ken explained, making Peter's heart start racing just at the thought of Carla actually still being in love with him.

He couldn't believe it.

Even though she had told him so in her message… even though he heard her say the words,

 _"_ _Because I don't love him… I still love you. I really do. I love you like mad Peter Barlow and despite the fact that my love for you is totally insane and stupid… it feels so good to admit that that's how I feel."_

Hearing it from his Dad only made it more real.

She loved him.

He'd made her say it at first.

He made her say on their first night together.

He said he wanted to hear even if she didn't mean it.

He never actually thought that she was telling the truth.

Not in a million years.

"Yeah... in love with Nick." Peter said with a roll of his eyes, even though he had just listened to her message, which told him that she had ended things with Nick and that she didn't love him, he felt stupidly better for making a pointless comment like that. Ken coughed and shook his head at his son before saying,

"You sure like to make things difficult don't you Peter… it's you she's in love with not him… trust me." Peter swallowed and wondered what else his Dad had worked out. "Anyway… shortly after you got back from China, I happened to notice that she was very different, sad... very upset, she practically started moping about the place and so did you." Ken explained.

"Well that could just mean that I'm finding it hard… y'know coping with your illness." Peter said, knowing his efforts were pointless but finding a tiny bit of comfort in trying anyway.

"And Carla?" Ken asked, his head on one side because he knew exactly what his son was up to. "Why's she been walking around like her world has ended recently?"

"I dunno do I… maybe she's upset because she broke up with Nick." Peter shrugged, still trying to act as if the news that Carla had ended things with Nick didn't please him.

Even though his entire life had changed drastically in a matter of weeks and even though he wasn't sure how he was going to get through it, the news that Carla had broken up with Nick had given him a slight thrill.

"And how exactly do you know that she broke up with Nick?" Ken asked with a smirk, "If, as you say you aven't spoken to her in months."

"Well maybe I heard it from around…" Peter said, unable to stop him self from grinning.

"Peter… give it up will you… I know."

"Okay." Peter chuckled, shaking his head and sighing as he rubbed his forehead, he was sure that his Dad still didn't have enough information to put him with Carla and he was sure that there must have been more to the story. "Dad… how did you work all this out though? I mean I don't get it… Did you see us? Did she tell you?"

"No… she didn't… well not on purpose." Ken began, "I think you just need to embrace the fact that you two haven't been as clever as you thought and I also found that you breaking up with Jessica was very suspicious."

"Why?" Peter asked,

"Well whist you may not have loved Jessica, it was clear that you both had a lot of fun together."

"We did… she's great… really great." Peter said, feeling really guilty now for the way he had treated Jessica and for cheating on her… even if it was with Carla.

"Exactly, so I had to sit and ask myself, why on earth would Peter end things with someone like that and in the end I came up with two possible reasons." Ken said, "One, You broke up with her because she cheated on you… or because you cheated on her."

"And let me guess the second one was the most obvious choice eh?" Peter replied gruffly, hating how easy it was for his Dad to come to such a conclusion.

"No… not at all actually. I had hoped you had learnt your lesson… with what happened with Carla n all." Ken said with a sigh and a raised eyebrow.

"I ave Dad… I really ave… it's just…" Peter began, shaking his head at being caught out by his father when he had thought he was being so careful. "It's Carla Dad… My Carla... I promise I would have never cheated on Jessica if it wasn't her..."

"Yes well that's no excuse Peter." Said Ken, Peter looked down at his lap ashamed as he sat before his Dad and when he looked back up he said,

"I'm sorry... I let you down Dad."

"No Peter." Ken shook his head, "You haven't let me down… if anything... I'm really proud of you."

"Really?" Peter said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. You have really stepped up lately. The way you've come with me to each appointment and the way you've been supporting Tracy through this… You have been so amazing Peter and I do want to say thank you." Ken said, reaching out and taking hold of his son's hand.

"What are sons for eh?" Peter smiled modestly, looking down at his Dad's hand, which was lovingly entwined with his.

"Despite all of that… Despite how brave you are... even you need support Peter." Ken said, looking at his son intently. "I saw her this morning you know."

"Who?" Peter asked, although he knew his Dad was talking about Carla.

"You know who... Carla. She was going into the pub and she looked totally miserable." Ken said with a sigh.

"Yeah… because of me." Peter sighed shaking his head.

"Well I'm sure it's you mixed with a lot of other things…" Ken begun, "Breaking up with Nick and cheating on him has obviously took it's toll on her… they were really happy together Peter."

"Yeah… so I've heard." Peter sighed, remembering how many times Carla had made sure that she told him how happy she was with Nick. It still burned him to think about the two of them together and he had shake the image of Carla and Nick right out of his head before he got too angry.

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad Peter… I'm just trying to make you understand that for her to break up with him… she must really love you and when you go over to her place later and tell her the truth… the whole truth about all of this… she'll be there for you… she'll support you." Ken said, hoping his son would take his advice, hoping Peter would stop acting so brave and that he would let Carla in because he knew that sooner or later… he was going to need some help in dealing with all of this.

"I… know she will." Peter nodded, knowing that if Carla knew even the slightest about what he was going through, that she would be there.

He thought about the many many times she'd ask him if he was alright, He though about the day he had turned up at her place, right after they had found out that his Dad had cancer and how when she was lying beneath him she looked deep into his eyes and asked him if he was okay.

He thought about how in her voicemail message she said that she knew he was going through stuff and how she wanted to help.

He knew she would care, he knew she'd want to know all about this and now he had his Dad's permission to tell her… he knew what he had to do.

Ken's chemotherapy finished after two hours and as the nurse came over to take the drip out of Ken's arm Peter watched nervously. He wondered if his Dad was in pain at all, if he could feel the medicine pumping through his veins and if he was scared.

"You alright Dad?" he asked, watching closely as Ken winced when the nurse removed the needle from his skin.

"Yes I'm fine Peter… honestly." Ken said, as the nurse started taking his blood pressure. She explained that Ken may suffer from some side affects and that he needed to take some medication. Peter listened carefully as the nurse explained everything to his Dad.

"Y'know… maybe I should stay with you tonight Dad." Peter said, upon hearing that his Dad could suffer from severe nausea and vomiting. He didn't think that this was the time for him to be with Carla, he thought he should stay by his Dad's side instead.

"I'll be fine Peter… I promise." Ken insisted, even though he wasn't completely sure that he was going to be fine.

He actually started feeling sick on their way home from the hospital and as Peter parked the car, he had to take in a few deep breaths. Tracy was waiting right outside of number one on tenterhooks as Ken and Peter walked up the road and towards the house.

"Dad." She cried, running towards him and putting her arms around him. "How was it?" she asked with tears in her eyes, she wished she had been there but she just felt like she couldn't have faced sitting next to her Dad whilst he was injected with drugs.

"Not bad." Ken said, still acting as if what he was going through wasn't a big deal. "I could do with a strong cup of tea though." He said, taking his keys out and letting himself into his house. Tracy stared at Peter as her Dad walked inside number one.

"I honestly don't know how he does it." Peter said shaking his head, "He was acting as if he was just sat at home watching the telly… He was just trying to be brave... I know it... It wasn't that bad though Tracy… you should try n come next time." Tracy nodded at Peter and bit her lip as they walked into their Dad's house.

Peter and Tracy both kept a close watch on their Dad as he tried to pretend that nothing was wrong with him. He drank his cup of tea and had another before he'd had enough of being treated like an ill person. He turned to his son and said,

"So… Peter, what time are you planning on seeing Carla tonight then?" Tracy turned to Peter at the mention of Carla and said,

"Excuse me?"

"Errr I don't know Dad." Peter said, ignoring his sister completely because he knew she'd have a lot to say on the matter if he gave her the time of day.

"Peter… just go please… stringing it out won't make it any easier for you." Ken said sighing. "It make be awkward at first but I'm sure she'll be really pleased to see you."

"Oh please don't tell me you're the reason she broke up with Nick." Tracy said, shaking her head in disbelief. Peter got up out of his chair and decided to continue ignoring his sister.

"Look after him." He said to Tracy, nodding towards their Dad before leaving the room.

It was only when he was on the way out of his Dad's house when he realised that he wasn't used to just walking out the front.

To stop people knowing he was back, he would go around the back and wait until the coast was clear before running to his car.

It was only now that Peter realised it was a miracle no one had seen him before.

He stood still for a moment as he took a deep breath and plucked up the courage to take the leap.

To walk right over to Carla's building and not look back.

He hadn't done it so slowly and calmly before.

He used to always run over there in a state of excitement and now he was rubbing his palms together nervously.

He was done with the rules, the games, the sneaking about, it was time for him to be honest.

He pressed the buzzer on number twelve… he pressed it a few times before realising that she wasn't in… either that or she just wasn't answering.

It had been hours since Carla had left him that message and Peter wished that he had sent her some sort of reply… even if it was just a few words to say that he felt the same way… that he loved her too.

Peter stood outside Victoria Court aimlessly for a while before turning on his heel and deciding that if he couldn't find Carla… he'd find the next best thing.

Michelle.

He made his way over to the pub to speak to Carla's best friend instead. He had guessed that she would be working as it was a Tuesday night. He hoped she was behind the bar so he could talk to her easily without making a fuss.

When Peter anxiously walked into the bustling pub the last thing he expected to see was a stunned Carla.

A stunned Carla who was stood in front of a suited n booted Nick Tilsley who was down on one knee.

With a small blue box in his hands… a box with a ring inside it.


	15. Sorry

**_Sorry it's been so long with this one... I hope you're all still interested._**

* * *

When Carla made the decision to go back to the Rover's Return that Tuesday, she thought that she'd just be having a quiet drink. That she'd maybe cheer up a little after being in Michelle's company and that she would go home feeling a lot better than she did when she woke up.

The last thing she had been expecting was for Nick to burst in, rush over to her get down on one knee and say,

"I know that you said that you've hurt me but I really don't care. I don't care what you've done I love you so much and I know that deep down you love me too… what ever has happened we can work together to get our relationship back on track…"

"Nick Tilsey get up off the floor right now." Carla said, in a hushed tone so she didn't draw to much attention to herself… then again everyone in the pub had their eyes on them anyway, Her employees looked amused whilst her best friend had her hand over her mouth.

Carla had always hated public displays of affection like this, especially public proposals and she desperately needed Nick to not ask the question that she thought he was about to ask.

Frank had done it like this.

In front of everyone… in that very same room in fact and Carla couldn't stand it… at all.

She was staring at Nick in such shock that she didn't see that Peter Barlow had walked into the pub _and_ that he was watching.

Everything.

In horror.

"Carla Connor… will you marry me?"

Carla closed her eyes and shook her head as the words came out of Nick's mouth and before she could even answer him, she heard a very familiar voice say,

"Oh you ave got to be kidding me." Carla eyes shot open as she finally realised that Peter was stood there.

He was near the door of the pub and in Carla's eyes, looking as dashing as ever.

When Nick turned around to see where the familiar voice had come from, Carla quickly shot Michelle a look.

"Oh my god." Michelle mouthed whilst Nick frowned. He stood up awkwardly, his head slightly titled as he said,

"What are you doing here?" He looked totally stunned to see Peter, then again so did everyone else in the pub.

Carla's employees looked even more amused than they had done before and everyone else who knew who Peter was looked stunned.

Even though this kind of public humiliation wasn't the kind of thing that Carla enjoyed, she couldn't move.

She was rooted to the spot and she physically couldn't take her eyes off Peter or Nick.

She looked between them both and suddenly felt short of breath.

Nick was stood in his favourite grey suit with a white shirt and black tie whilst Peter was wearing a contrasting leather jacket and jeans.

Nick was clean shaven whilst Peter was heavily bearded and it was clear to all, that they couldn't be more different then each other.

Carla didn't want to look to much at Peter so she only watched him for a second before quickly looking away.

She thought if she looked at him for too long and if he looked at her, that everything that they had been doing would be totally obvious.

That Nick would be able to suss out everything in an instant.

She didn't even know what Peter was doing there any way.

There he was, after months of keeping a low profile and not letting himself be seen, he was now stood in the busiest place on the street and not caring that everyone knew he was back.

She'd guessed that he must have listened to her message, the one she had left him earlier on saying that she loved him.

She then hoped that he wasn't taking this proposal from Nick the wrong way, she hoped he wasn't thinking that she had anything to do with it and as she took a slight step away from Nick, Peter stepped forward.

"Did you hear me?" Nick said, stepping forward as well, now directly in front of Peter. "Peter what are you doing here?"

"Oh... I'm sorry..." Peter dryly replied, "Am I not allowed to step foot in a pub now? I mean I know I'm an alcoholic n everything but I can control myself."

Carla shook her head because a Peter and Nick stand off was clearly about to happen if she didn't do something.

"I'm ere… to speak to Carla." Peter said, not showing an ounce of how nervous he was show as he stared Nick down.

It wasn't actually Nick that he was nervous about... it was Carla of course.

He was already unable to stand being in the room with her without touching her.

"Carla…?" Nick stammered, spinning around on the spot and staring at her. She wasn't looking back at him though, she was staring at Peter who's gaze finally met hers properly.

They shared a moment of silent and sublime eye contact before being interrupted.

"Carla!" Nick said louder, causing her to focus her eyes on him instead.

"Nick…" She began, not knowing where to start and hating how almost everyone in the pub was transfixed by the ridiculously awkward confrontation that was taking place before them.

Knowing what to do next made Carla completely confused.

She desperately wanted to tend to Peter first, to finally talk to him again after seven long days of being without him but she also knew that it wouldn't be fair to leave Nick hanging.

"Nick… Maybe… we should go and talk about this somewhere else eh?" She said softly, looking at Nick and trying her best not to look at Peter, who was stood rather impatiently behind Nick.

"It's either a yes or no Carla…" Nick said plainly.

"Nick please." Carla begged,

"Just say it… Will you marry me… yes or no?" Nick said, although it seemed like deep down he knew what Carla's answer was going to be. She shook her head at him and looked down before saying a very quiet,

"No Nick... I can't marry you… I'm sorry."

She was sorry.

Sorry that she ever treated him this way because he really really didn't deserve it.

"Carla…" Nick began, sounding as if he was going to start trying his best to change her mind.

"I really am sorry Nick… but you're definitely not going to change my mind about this." Carla said delicately. Peter tutted and then sighed as he stood behind Nick. He then impatiently shook his head before letting out a rather abrupt,

"Are you done ere Nick?"

"Peter don't start." Carla said, shaking her head at him as he moved towards them both.

"I really... really need to speak to you." He said, ignoring the outraged look on Nick's face as he approached Carla.

"Oh... so now you wanna talk?" Carla replied with her head on one side. She was trying to act slightly angry with Peter because she didn't want Nick to catch on.

To find out about Peter in front of everyone would humiliate him and she really didn't want that.

"Oh…" Nick breathed, sensing the obvious attraction between the pair and thinking the worst. "Please... don't tell me he's the reason that you ended it with me… please."

She thought about lying but only for a moment... because she thought that she had already hurt Nick enough.

"I wish I could Nick… I really really do." Carla began, "Can we please just go and talk about this somewhere?"

"No… we can't!" Nick cried, Peter rolled his eyes and tried to walk around him.

Carla had hoped that Nick was going to leave things be with Peter but of course, their past was way too complicated for that.

Nick shook his head and gave Peter a rough shove so that he couldn't get past.

"You really don't want to start with me Tilsey…" Peter sighed shaking his head at Nick, partly as a warning and partly in pity.

He understood why Nick would be angry.

Why he had shoved him and why he was staring at him furiously but he didn't care.

He couldn't have Carla not know about his Dad for a moment longer.

He wanted to explain the way he had acted, the way he had treated her and why he had kept it a secret.

"Oh I think I do…" Nick said, deciding that right now he had nothing to do. Peter tried to walk past again but when Nick shoved him hard again he decided that enough was enough.

"Give it up!" Peter shouted, shoving Nick back. "It's over... deal with it." Nick lunged forward towards Peter, he swung his fist and hit him square on the chin.

Peter flew backwards and hit his head on the bar causing everyone in the pub to gasp.

"Nick!" Carla screamed, she pulled Peter to his feet, even though he didn't need it.

He took a deep breath and then he dived towards Nick, he was just about to raise his own fist but Carla stepped in.

She stepped right into the middle of Peter and Nick and cried,

"Oi… the both of you can stop this right now!" Her back was pressed against Peter's back and she was staring at Nick as she spoke.

He staggered backwards slightly as it was now very clear to him and everyone around them for that matter, that Carla was protecting Peter.

"You know what…" Nick said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I should have known better... You two are welcome to each other." He turned around and then stormed right towards the exit of the pub.

"Nick!" Carla called after him but he just flung the door open and walked right out.

Carla raised a hand to her forehead in frustration before turning to Peter.

"What?" He cried as she shook her head at him, "Don't look at me like that… He's the one who swung for me at first." Peter then took hold of his chin as if he was in pain and as Carla reached forward to touch it, Michelle realised that everyone was still watching and said,

"I reckon you two ought to take this out back don't you? Go on Peter… I'll bring you some ice." Peter nodded at Michelle and started to walk around the bar, leaving Carla stood in the middle of the pub.

Everything had happened so quickly that she hadn't had a chance to take it all in.

The entire pub had their eyes wide and their mouths open at what they had just witnessed and it was clear that this was going to be the talk of the town for days.

"Carla!" Michelle called, taking hold of her best friend who seemed to be in a trance and pushing her in the right direction of her living room to see Peter.

The very same room that they ended it.

Peter was sat on a chair at the dining table when Carla walked in and as Michelle went back to the bar to get some ice.

Even though he was in pain, Peter couldn't help but smirk at Carla as she walked towards him, his smirk was infectious and as she sat down, Carla couldn't help but smirk back… even though she was still a little angry with him.

"It's not funny Peter…" she said as Michelle came back with a tea towel full of ice. She handed it to Peter who nodded gratefully at her and said,

"Thanks Chelle… It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you he says…" Michelle said, shaking her head as Peter raised the ice to his chin. "Right… I guess I'll leave you to it." Michelle said as she walked towards the door, she closed it behind her and left Carla and Peter alone.

Their last meeting was so intense.

Full of anger.

Full of pain but this one was already so much more different then that.

As Peter struggled to hold the ice on his chin, Carla rolled her eyes and took it off him. She leant her elbow on the table and held the ice to his chin gently.

"Thanks…" Peter said, he was still smiling at Carla just because he was happy to be in her presence.

"You… are welcome." Carla replied, she smiled softly back at him and then sighed at the sight of his slightly fat lip.

They sat in silence for a while.

Carla was staring down at the table but Peter was staring at her... longingly so.

She tried to ignore it.

She tried to pretend as if she wasn't aware that he was transfixed but her eyes disobeyed her and they met his within seconds.

"What?" Carla laughed, shaking her head and clearing her throat.

"I can't believe he proposed." Peter said, half laughing as he spoke and even though his chin throbbed with pain.

"Well how the hell d'ya think I feel?" Carla exclaimed, still holding the ice on Peter's chin, she only put it down when she felt it beginning to melt within her fingers. She got up and put the rest of ice in the kitchen and when she came back to the table, Peter gently took hold of her hand.

"So…" Peter began as Carla sat down on the chair next to him.

"What are you doing ere?" she asked.

"What you mean other than getting beat by Nick Tilsey?" Peter remarked making Carla kick him gently underneath the table.

"Seriously Peter." She said, "I… take it you got my message." She didn't know why but she had suddenly got so embarrassed at the mention of her message.

The one where she not only told Peter that she'd broken up with Nick but also that she was in love with him.

"I sure did…" Peter nodded, still clutching onto Carla's hand for dear life.

"And…" she said, moving her fingers against his and taking hold of a few.

"And I love you too… of course I do..." Peter said, Carla was staring down at their entwined fingers as he spoke. She was smiling and when she looked up at Peter she shook her head in disbelief and said,

"This isn't happening."

"Yes it is…" Peter chuckled, "It is happening and I'm sorry… sorry for how I left things with you last week."

"Yeah well… I'm sorry too… and... I'll admit… waiting for you n Jessica at the airport was a little on the... stalker side."

"A little?" Peter laughed making Carla look even more sheepish than before.

"Don't Peter…" she said, shaking her head at him and taking a deep breath. "I really didn't know what else to do... I couldn't get the thought of you n Jessica out of me mind… although seeing her only made it worse."

"I broke up with her." Peter blurted out, not knowing that Carla had already known this news because Jessica had told her earlier on that day.

"I… know." Carla said, understanding how crazy this probably made her sound... again. She knew that Peter was probably thinking all sorts, that she had done some more digging and had somehow found this out.

"You… know…" He laughed again and stared at Carla who glanced down at their hands.

"She told me." Carla explained, just coming out with it and hoping that he wouldn't be annoyed at Jess.

"She... told you? When?"

"Earlier on today… she actually came ere and found me... said she just asked around." Carla said.

"Wow…" Peter breathed, unable to believe that Jessica had actually sought Carla out.

"Yes flamin wow…" Carla cried with a smirk. "Do you see what you do to us women Peter Barlow? You've got us walking around town, practically stalking you… I mean my god it's like summat out of Fatal Attraction." Peter couldn't help but laugh at Carla's comment as she affectionately reached forward and ran a hand through his hair.

"So what did she say?" Peter asked, getting slightly nervous because he knew that he'd have to talk about his Dad soon.

He was enjoying their flirtatious banter and he knew the moment he had to talk about his Dad would be the moment things became serious.

"A lot… that you ended it in China and that you're a good guy." Carla explained, Peter laughed falsely at the good guy comment, which made Carla raise an eyebrow at him. "What?" She asked.

"I'm just not so sure that I'm a good guy to be quite honest with ya…" He said, "I mean after everything I've done... not to mention I was seriously considering beating the shit out of Nick back there."

"Is that so?" Carla asked, her right eyebrow still perfectly raised.

"Yeah… I don't know who he thinks he is to be honest with ya… I mean how can he ave the nerve to propose to my wife and do it in public as well." Peter tutted.

He was being deadly serious but Carla couldn't help but giggle at him, she was absent-mindedly stroking her thumb against the back of his hand and when the laughter died down, she said,

"Do you wanna know what else Jessica told me?"

"I think... I ave an idea…" said Peter before biting down on his lip anxiously.

"She said… there was something going on with you… something that you aven't told me and something that meant that you were going to need me." Carla said, watching Peter intently as he sat before her. "So… do you need me?"

Peter sniffed hard and let a tear run down his cheek before nodding at Carla slowly.

"Yes." He said weakly. "I really really do... so much."

Just by the tone of his voice and the look on his face, Carla knew that this was going to be difficult.

She leant forward and tightly put her arms around Peter.

"I'm here Peter... I'm here."

"I need to start at the beginning." Peter said, clearing his throat as Carla let go of him.

"What do you mean?" She asked, Peter cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

He looked sad and almost like he was in pain so Carla leant forwards and took hold of his hand again for support.

"That night we first… y'know… again… well I'd come back to see me Dad… I'd been back in Manchester for a few weeks and he invited me around for dinner." Peter began, Carla nodded at him but kept quiet because it sounded like Peter was going to finally be honest with her.

He was finally going to tell her everything and she didn't want to wait a minute longer.

"Well you n I both know that I didn't make it to me Dad's. As soon as I saw you leave the pub I just had to follow you…"

"Who's the stalker now eh?" Carla joked, Peter laughed quietly for a moment but then his face flashed back to sadness. "Okay…" she said, fake zipping up her lip with her finger and thumb to show that she would be quiet.

Peter took a moment to take in how adorable Carla had just looked and then continued,

"You looked out of this world and I just couldn't help but walk behind you… I was hoping you'd turn around n see me but when you didn't I just had to tap you on your shoulder and... then you kissed me."

"I didn't know it was you." Carla said, Peter didn't look like he was too convinced and titled his head to the side before saying,

"Well whoever you thought it was… that was it… that kiss had got me hooked."

"Me too." Carla nodded, "I guess that's what happens when two people with such addictive personalities get it on eh?"

"Definitely." Peter said, "And speaking of addictions I ave to make it clear that I haven't had a drink for years."

"Good." Carla nodded again.

"But I won't lie to you Carla… I've had some cravings… a lot of cravings if I'm honest… especially lately and after that night I just couldn't get you out of my head… I tried I really did. I tried to stay away and pretend it never happened but my Dad was still on at me to come over and when I did… he told me."

"Told you what?" Carla asked leaning forward a little. Peter sniffed again and wiped his eyes as another tear fell.

He didn't have to say it.

He didn't need to spell it out.

It was finally so clear.

She didn't know exactly what it was that was that made her see... just that the connection she had with Peter made it clear that this was about his Dad.

"Peter…" Carla stammered, "What's wrong with him?"

"He's got… Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma." Peter almost whispered, Carla breathed out in shock and swallowed as he then said, "It's a form of… Cancer."

"Oh…" Carla couldn't get the words out at first, she shook her head but then she took a deep breath in because she knew that Peter needed her to be strong. "When?"

"It was that night I came to the factory…" Peter said, his voice laced in pain. "We'd been to the doctors that day… I didn't plan it… I'd gone out for a fag but somehow my legs just took me to you… my heart just took me to you… as cheesy as it sounds." He smiled then.

He smiled at his own corniness and Carla smiled too, even though she felt like bursting into a fit of tears.

"You've known this long?" Carla asked.

"Well he didn't have a diagnosis back then… he just knew that he was ill… and the doctor had done some tests. Carla my Dad didn't want anyone to know, not even his closest friends… That's why I couldn't tell you… that's why I couldn't be seen… it would make people suspicious and I couldn't have people find out… because my Dad didn't want that… y'know."

"Peter…" Carla breathed, knowing he was getting himself worked up and that he needed to take a breath so that he could calm down.

He nodded at her knowing what she wanted him to do without her even having to say it and when he was ready, he started to speak again.

"I never meant to hurt you Carla… n I mean that."

"I know…" Carla nodded tearfully. "I know." She squeezed his hand tightly and waited patiently for him to continue.

"I've been going with him… to all his appointments n stuff… I don't know why but I always wanted to make sure that I was smartly dressed y'know… like looking good in front of the doctors would make him proud or something stupid like that…"

"He is proud of you Peter… I know it." Carla insisted, not knowing that just earlier on Ken had told him how proud he was.

"Y'know as painful as this all is… telling you about it feels… so good." Peter said, "Going to all these appointments made me want to drink so bad…"

"I understand Peter… I really do..." Carla said but he shook his head at her.

"No…do you remember that first night I came to yours... before we'd got together and when I admitted how I felt about you… the one just before Christmas?" Peter asked.

"Course I do…" Carla nodded, "That was one of the best nights of me life if I'm honest."

"Me too…" said Peter, "Well do you... remember how I said I treated you like booze?"

"Yeah…" Carla said nodding slowly and knowing what Peter was getting at. "I do remember that but that's not what you did ere Peter…"

"Isn't it?" Peter said disappointedly. "I mean I was doing the same thing wasn't I? Sneaking around… not telling anyone about you... about how I felt..." He sniffed hard and looked as if he was going to burst into tears again.

"Peter don't…" Carla begged, "I was up for all of it... just as much as you were… maybe even more in fact."

"I am so sorry Carla." Peter said wiping his eyes. "And not just about this… about everything I've ever done."

"Oh Peter don't start…" Carla sighed, "Okay… this is about the here n now…"

"I know but I still owe you an apology… I still treated you like an addiction and I am sorry." Peter said, not letting up.

"Trust me Peter… I was just as addicted to you… probably even more… not knowing where you were, what you were doing… it was torture."

"This is gonna sound mental..." Peter sighed, feeling like such a fool because he was literally sat with tears pouring down his cheeks and also with a a fat lip. "I really do feel like you kind of saved me… you know… whenever I felt like I couldn't cope… whenever I felt like things were spiralling out of control… I'd come here… I'd come to you n I felt so much better." Peter said, "I felt bad for treating you like that… like a fix… and when you started getting close to me like at the factory that time… I got worried I'd hurt you again, so I pushed you away… and I'm really sorry for that too."

"Peter stop saying sorry cause you're doing me head in…" Carla said, "You weren't keeping _me_ a secret, you were keeping a secret for your Dad… and it sounds like you ave been a real rock to him… So if I was there for you without even knowing it then I'm ridiculously happy about that... okay?"

"Things could ave been so different you know… I could ave done this properly… maybe if I'd asked to speak to you… maybe if I'd begged you for another chance that night… I could have showed you that I've changed and not been a cheater all over again."

"Peter… that night happened exactly how it was supposed to… we can't change the past and anyway I'm more concerned about the future… our future… your Dad's future... How's he coping with everything?" Carla asked, thinking about all the times she had seen Ken out and about as normal, wishing she had paid more attention to him, wishing she had asked him if he was okay more often.

"He's soldering through it of course. Acting like it's nothing and as if he's going to be completely fine." Peter said, "He had his first lot of Chemo today and the entire way through it he was just nattering away about something he watched on TV…"

"Wait? What? He had his first lot of Chemo today… n you're ere talking to me?" Carla asked, shaking her head at Peter and feeling guilty.

"He's the one who told me to find you." Peter said, "He worked it out Carla… me n you… he's had it all sussed out for days apparently."

"That man…" Carla sighed, then there was a small silence.

One where Carla just held onto Peter's hand tightly and one where the only sound you could hear was their breathing.

After a while Peter spoke first and said,

"So… you broke up with Nick?"

"I sure did… as you can see he's taken it really well." Carla said sarcastically. "I still can't believe he proposed to me… and in the flamin pub of all places."

"He must really love you..." Peter sighed, slightly unable to understand how he was sitting there and feeling sorry for Nick. "It's not too late you know… you can still say yes to him… I'm sure he'd take you back in a heartbeat."

"No… he wouldn't… I think he and pretty much everyone else has cottoned on to the fact that me n you have been doing the dirty on him." Carla said, she still felt unbelievably guilty but a small smile crept up onto her face as she said, "Besides… how could I marry him… when I'm still so in love with you that it hurts?"

Peter's sore face lit up when he heard those words.

When he heard her say she loved him.

"I love you too… always ave done… always will." Peter said, Carla looked thrilled as she down at their joined hands and when she looked back up at Peter he nervously said, "I mean I meant what I said at the factory though… I don't think this is the right time for you n me…"

"And that you're too messed up to get back together with me?" Carla replied nervously, hoping that Peter wasn't about to end things with her as she had just got him back in her life.

"Yeah… well no." Peter stuttered, "Don't get me wrong I am still completely besotted with ya, it's just…" He paused when Carla smiled sheepishly at his comment. "I think that with everything that's happening with me Dad n all… I'm not in any position to be good for you… at all..."

"Okay…" Carla swallowed, "So where does that leave us?" She breathed in and out rigidly just from the thought of what Peter could say next.

She knew how scared she looked.

How worried and how utterly unable to refrain from bursting right into tears if this man was about to let her go.

"I dunno..." Peter said, "All I know is that I need you... I need you more than I've ever needed anyone... how selfish am I eh?"

"You know what..." Carla said, "I think... that what you need right now is... a friend."

"A friend?" Peter asked,

"Yeah... someone who knows you... someone who loves you... who you can lean on... and that someone is me." Carla said, leaning closer to him and resting her forehead against his for a while. "We don't ave to talk about the past... we don't have to think about the future either... we can just take each day as it comes... we can just... be... I'd like that."

"Me too." Peter nodded, then he grinned at Carla and said, "Although you can kiss me if ya want?"

"What with that busted up lip?" Carla teased, kissing him on his cheek instead and then letting her head linger in front of his. She paused before biting her lip and saying, "I wanna see him Peter… I wanna see your Dad."

"Okay." He nodded.

They both got up of their chairs and together, they left the Rover's Return Pub to see Ken.


	16. I'll Be There

So… Carla and Peter had decided that just for now… they would be friends.

Carla had decided that Peter needed someone other than his immediate family to lean on and Peter had decided that he wasn't in a fit state to be anyone's boyfriend at the moment.

They had both taken that very short walk to see Ken that afternoon and the moment Carla had stepped foot into his living room and seen him… She burst into tears.

It shocked Peter as she had been so calm before hand and it made Ken shake his head in confusion.

"I err.. told her… everything." Peter said hoarsely, tears poured down Carla's face as she approached Ken, she wanted to throw her arms around him but it was almost as if was scared.

She was scared because now, when she looked at Ken, he was no longer the resilient man she used to know, he was now someone who was very very ill.

Carla knew it was ridiculous but she truly felt as if an action, so simple and so tender as a hug would somehow hurt him.

"Ken…" She sniffed, thinking about how many times she had seen him lately and how she had pretty much just passed him by.

How she hadn't paid him hardly any attention because she was too busy being selfish.

She was too busy wrapped up in losing the affections of his son to notice how different he looked but now… now she was looking at him with her eyes wide open and it was clear that the cancer was really beginning to take it's toll.

"Don't cry…" Ken said, raising his arms for a hug as if she was the terminally ill one.

"I'm so sorry..." Carla sobbed, holding Ken close and kissing him on the cheek softly.

He had always been the best father in law that she'd had and as she put her arms around him she could tell how much weight he had lost.

She must have gasped or something because Ken shook his head again and said,

"I'm alright."

"No... you're not." Carla cried.

To the untrained eye, Ken still looked like his normal self but to those very few people who knew what he was going through, they could see it all.

When Carla looked into his eyes she saw that he had lost a little bit of his sparkle and when she sat down next to him, she felt how secretly scared he was.

It was just the little things that told her that he was frightened.

It was in the way he would let out a very quick and very little laugh at the end of each sentence, it wasn't a happy laugh, it wasn't one that you could get joy from… it was a nervous one.

It was also in the way that he would blink a lot and flinch ever so slightly when ever the words cancer, chemotherapy or hospital was mentioned… yes these were the things that showed Carla that Ken wasn't as brave as he had first made out and that he really was terrified about the next six weeks of his life.

He hid it well though.

He smiled and he acted as if his illness was nothing, just like Peter had said he had been doing before.

"I'm gonna be here…" Carla nodded assuringly with a tear running down her cheek as she spoke. Ken was about to shake his head and say something but Carla spoke again. "I'm gonna be here for all of you… I'm gonna come to the hospital… I want to help... I want to support you..."

"You really don't have to do that Carla." said Ken, smiling at her admiringly and then looking at Peter who had sat down next to Carla a while ago now, he was watching her in awe, amazed that after everything, after all the lies and the way he treated her that she could still be so selfless.

"Yes I do… I want to…" She said, reaching out and taking hold of Ken's hand, which he'd rested on the table. "I promise you… anything you need… I'll be there."

Carla kept her promise.

She made sure that she was there.

When ever Peter or any of the other Barlow's needed her for that matter.

It took a little time for them to realise that Carla was being one hundred per cent true to her word of course.

They knew how heartfelt her words were and how much she had meant them but what they didn't know was that she was completely intent on being there for every little thing.

It took them a while to gather up the strength to ask her for even the simplest things but they soon learned that Carla was not going anywhere.

The next time Ken was scheduled for his chemo she was there.

She was sat in the chair next to him and Peter who had also come along too.

She had brought some playing cards along with her and the three of them played a lot of very highly competitive games of snap to pass the time and even though he had a toxic drug working it's way through his system, Ken said it had been ages since he'd had so much fun.

Tracy hadn't gathered up the courage to go yet.

She made up some story about having a cold and that her going to the hospital wouldn't be a good idea but Ken, Peter and Carla all knew that she was making it all up.

They all knew that Tracy was totally avoiding the hospital and at the beginning, they just left her too it.

Carla was sure that Tracy just needed her own time to deal with her Dad's illness and that she would maybe come along to the hospital the next time but she didn't.

Instead there was Amy's "dentist" appointment.

There was another phantom cold, which had seemed to appear from nowhere.

Then there was the fact that there was no one to cover her shift in Barlow's buys.

There seemed to be an endless amount of reasons why Tracy avoided the hospital and as time went by, It became very clear to Carla that Ken really wanted Tracy by his side.

He was scheduled to have six weekly sessions of chemotherapy and he'd already done four of them without his daughter there.

Of course, Ken didn't act like it bothered him too much, he continued to smile until it physically hurt and it also pained Carla and Peter to know that they he desperately wanted Tracy there.

It wasn't easy.

In fact it had been downright difficult but eventually… Carla had managed to coerce Tracy to take the leap and come to the hospital.

She'd pretty much had enough of Tracy's excuses and had confronted her on it one morning when Ken was due to have his next load of treatment.

She cornered her outside Number one that very cold morning and had asked her why she wasn't on her way to the hospital with her brother and Dad.

Tracy said she would be going next week and that she couldn't possibly go today because she had to go and get a "sick" Amy from school… but Carla wasn't having any of it.

They argued for a little while, people were around but they weren't really listening at first because they just assumed that Carla and Tracy were just having one of their ridiculous little spats… those people passing by, didn't think it was any thing serious so they just continued with their day.

"Oh just leave me alone will ya Carla." Tracy eventually said, waving Carla off and hoping that she would go.

"No!" Carla cried, "I will not leave ya alone!." They were walking down Coronation Street at the time and now... well now they had many many spectators to their heated exchange.

People knew this wasn't something petty anymore because Tracy... Yes Tracy Barlow was in floods of uncontrollable tears.

She looked utterly distraught… vulnerable in fact and that was a look that people weren't used to seeing on Tracy.

Carla suddenly felt really bad for bringing this discussion to the street and as people still didn't know about Ken, She dragged Tracy away from prying eyes.

She pulled her down the ginnel, the very same place that she and Peter had hidden their affair from everyone and took a deep breath before saying,

"Tracy… I won't try to imagine what you are going through right now… You're Dad is sick… and I'm guessing that you're probably scared, shitless… but so is Peter and so is your Dad… Imagine how he's feeling right now? His entire body has been taken over by this horrible disease, it's eating away at him Trace…"

"What and you don't think I know that?" Tracy sniffed, "It's all I think about… He's Me Dad Carla… He's the best man I've ever known… I don't want to see him hooked up to some machine… I can't… I'm not strong enough."

"He doesn't need you to be strong Tracy… He just needs you… there… That's all he wants, to see his daughter by his side." Carla said softly. "I'm on my way there… please Trace… please come with me… he only has two more sessions left… imagine how you're going to feel knowing that you weren't at any of them… Please… come with me?"

"I don't..." Tracy began but she knew that Carla was right.

As much as she hated to admit it... Carla was right so she ended up going with her to the hospital.

When Ken looked up from his chair a little while later and saw Tracy shuffle through the doors to the treatment room, he smiled at her so lovingly and so warmly that she had forgotten how scared she was.

She sat down on the chair next to him and she took hold of his hand.

She made sure that she kissed him on the head and that showed him how much she loved him.

Peter looked totally amazed to see his sister in the hospital room and as he walked over to Carla, he asked her how she did it but she just gave him a knowing smile and said,

"I told ya didn't I… anything you lot need I'm ere."

* * *

Now let's go back to Carla and Peter being "just friends" shall we?

Well obviously they found it incredibly hard but at first they were actually naive enough to believe that their relationship could be a strictly platonic one.

They were naive enough to think that the lingering looks could be ignored... that the sexual tension they could feel whenever they were alone together could be defused without them actually having to give in to their desires.

Desire is like hunger and sooner or later Carla and Peter both knew that their hunger for each other was going to have to be fed.

Word about what had happened with Nick that at the pub had spread like wild fire.

Everyone knew he'd proposed and everyone knew that he had been interrupted by Peter... his arch enemy... his love rival.

Carla had tried to talk to Nick alone on many occasions but he always refused.

He said it was too hard, too painful, too embarrassing and that he should have known to think that he could ever replaced Peter.

He said he should have none that Peter was the love of Carla's life and that when she'd said she would hurt him... he should have listened.

Carla despised that Nick felt that way and she felt a huge amount of guilt for what she had done to him but she also knew that there was no going back now.

Everyone knew that Peter was back in town and they had guessed that he was back for his wife… that he was back for Carla.

They had both kept very quiet on the matter at first, they hadn't confirmed or denied their relationship because even they didn't know what was going on.

They said that they would just take each day as it came and that's what they had been doing so far.

Carla hopelessly loved Peter and He loved her equally as much.

That much they knew.

It was clear in the way that they both looked at each other... in those moment's when they had nothing but electric eye contact and silence.

In those times where they weren't even sat anywhere near each other but they could still get each other's attention within seconds.

Yes… they loved each other, crazily so but as Peter was still in a very damaged place right now, they also knew they had to try their hardest to keep their relationship as simple as they could.

Friends were simple... right? They could do it.

They were sure they could do it but they also knew that if they wanted things to be "simple" that they also had to keep those unmistakable… physical urges at bay.

Sometimes it worked and sometimes… well sometimes Carla and Peter came very… very close to crossing that "friend" line.

Sometimes it was just a cheeky kiss.

One that had come from them both getting that little bit too close when sharing a moment of laughter or one that was supposed to be a quick peck goodnight but had very quickly turned into something more.

It was easy enough for Carla and Peter to get past those kisses because they almost always happened where people might able to see them or where they could have been interrupted but other times… well other times weren't that easy for Carla and Peter to ignore.

Other times they had to fight for the strength to walk away from each other.

There was one night in particular… a night where Carla had been spending it sat in her flat alone after a rather long and heavy day at work.

Peter was sat on also sofa but this one was his Dad's, he had spent the day there but it was clear that Ken was getting pretty irritated by his sons incessant fussing.

Peter had spent a lot of time over at Number One lately and Ken was beginning to get a little worried for his son.

He hadn't been back to his flat properly for weeks, just to get clean clothes and stuff and other than going to the hospital, Peter barley left his Dad's side, which had eventually led to Ken saying,

"Oh for goodness Peter… I'm fine… would you please go out… get some air… go n see Carla for a bit... just take your mind of me for a while."

So that's what Peter did.

He turned up at her flat and when she opened her door, still wearing the same black dress that she had worn to work that day, She smiled at Peter affectionately and said,

"Hello you…"

"Me Dad's kicked me out… can I come in and annoy you instead?" Peter asked, trying not to blatantly eye Carla up and down as she stood before him.

Friends weren't supposed to check each other out like this but he couldn't stop his eyes as they travelled down Carla's pefect body and back up again before she said,

"Sure."

She led Peter over to her sofa where they sat, next to each other but not touching... not at all.

One minute they were enjoying a rather ridiculous episode of Come Dine With Me, and the next?

Well the next moment Carla was on her back, underneath Peter's body, clawing at his T-Shirt whilst he had a hand tangled in her long hair.

With tongues in each other's mouths and clothes being thrown to the floor, it wasn't long before Carla had her dress hitched up around her waist and Peter had his jeans undone.

They were so close to becoming one again but then... Peter stopped kissing Carla… and shook his head.

"We shouldn't…" He said as he sat up, he got off a stunned Carla who was still short of breath from the passionate kissing that she and Peter had just been part of.

"Okay…?" She nodded at him at a loss of words.

"I mean… friends don't do this…" Peter stammered, pulling his jeans up quickly, just so he didn't have a chance to change his mind.

"Some friends do…" Carla grinned suggestively, trying to make the situation as light hearted as she could even though she was so full of frustration that she was almost fit to burst.

She wanted Peter so much by this point and she was finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than the fact she had almost just had him.

"Yeah…" Peter chuckled, letting out a sharp breath. He wanted Carla just as much as she wanted him of course... maybe even more but he knew he had a lot to prove and that this, wouldn't be the right way to do it.

Carla pulled her dress back to normal and couldn't help but smile at the look that Peter had on his face.

It was a cute one, a sheepish one but it was also one that showed Carla that he wasn't entirely sure that he even believed what he was saying, especially as he was staring down at her bare legs with his teeth sunk into his lip.

"I really... don't think we should do this." He eventually said, hating a tiny part of himself for resisting Carla because she looked like a goddess as she lay before him.

"Okay... N why's that?" Carla said, sitting upright and looking up at Peter seductively as he put his T-Shirt on.

"Because… I don't want to treat you this way…" Peter said, looking serious now and pulling Carla up and onto her two feet.

"What way?" Carla asked with her head on one side as she rested a hand on Peter's chest.

"Like a fix." He said, "I... don't want you to think I'm only ere because I cannot cope with what's happening to me Dad."

"But I don't…" Carla began only to be interrupted by Peter again.

"Carla... I really want to prove to you that I can be a good man… a good husband… and I will… you just have to let me Dad get better first." Peter said, "Then I can take care of us… take care of you." He couldn't help but grin again after saying _"Take care of you."_ and as Carla nodded she said,

"Alright..." Peter didn't respond with words, he kissed her on the lips ever so gently and stroked her tenderly on the cheek

The feeling of the sublime kiss that Peter had left on Carla's lips lingered whilst he moved away and said,

"I better be off." Carla nodded reluctantly and eventually she let Peter leave.

She let him leave because she saw sense in what he was saying and even though it left her feeling incredibly sexually frustrated, she knew it was the right thing to do.

Amongst all of this, the residents of Weatherfield hadn't cottoned on to Ken being ill at all.

Amazingly he hadn't lost any hair during the chemotherapy and the side effects that he had suffered from the most were being sick and often feeling very tired.

He told his close friends that he had just got the flu, which is why he hadn't been ouch much and because Tracy and Peter were reluctantly sticking with his story, his friends had believed him.

He was still insistent on not having everyone's pity and not making a fuss which Tracy, Peter and Carla all understood but it really didn't make sense for people to see Carla going in and out of Number One Coronation so often… especially where Simon and Amy were concerned... so in the end, they were told about their Granddad's illness.

They were told on a very wet and rainy Friday afternoon.

Right before Ken's last bout of chemotherapy in fact.

As parents, Peter and Tracy decided it would be better to tell their children about Ken then because he'd already had most his treatment by that point and that hopefully meant that he was on the mend.

They sat them both down and took a deep breath before even knowing where to begin.

Simon and Amy reacted to this shocking news about their Granddad in the same way... with tears and lots of them.

Simon's birth Mum had died from cancer and Amy had a friend who's Dad died from it so they were both, more than aware of how life threatening it could be.

Tracy and Peter both calmed their children down as they cried and they both insisted that since their Dad had nearly finished his chemotherapy, he was surely going to be on the mend in no time.

Only… it didn't go that way.

The chemotherapy hadn't caused Ken to get any better… in fact it had almost destroyed his bone marrow, which meant that sooner or later he need a transplant to replace it.

This news rocked Peter and Tracy's already shaken world.

They had been so sure that their Dad was going to get better and to hear that he needed to get a bone marrow transplant had totally thrown them.

Ken was put on a waiting list for the transplant but Tracy and Peter were both told by a doctor that he could receive a donation from a someone they knew if by some crazy chance it turned out that they were a match.

The doctor then explained that even though Peter was Ken's son, the chances of him being match would be slim and that the chances of Tracy being a match would be even slimmer but they both went ahead and got tested anyway.

Whilst waiting for the results, Peter found himself pacing the floor.

He couldn't sit still and soon found him self all jittery and on edge, Tracy had gone off outside to get some air and had left Peter in the hospital hallway going back and forth.

It was then that he couldn't help but wish he that was maybe a more religious kind of guy.

The kind of guy who could get some comfort from a prayer right now…. Then again, Peter thought it was better late then never, right?

So... he got down on his knees in the middle of the hallway, closed his eyes... put his hands together… and prayed.

He prayed he or Tracy were a suitable match.

He prayed his Dad would get one hundred per-cent better and he felt completely ridiculous as he did so.

It was probably a good thing that Carla had arrived when she did.

She had been told about the bone marrow test and had come to offer up some support.

She walked in and was surprised... no stunned to see Peter...

Yes, Peter Francis Barlow, the least religious man she knew, down on his knees, eyes closed in what looked like the midst of a prayer.

His hands were still clasped desperately together and as she walked towards him, she was sure that she felt her heart actually ache because this was how desperate he had become.

"Peter…" Carla began softly. His eyes shot open when he heard her voice and as she said, "You alright down there?"

"Yes." He said, sniffing and standing upright, Carla nodded at him but she didn't believe him for one second so she put her arms around his body and held him close to her.

She stayed with him and Tracy... They all found out together that neither, Peter or Tracy were matches for Ken's bone marrow.

"Oh well… it were a long shot right." Tracy said, almost in tears because she had so hoped that a miracle might have occurred.

"Yeah…" Peter nodded, clinging onto his sister's hand tightly.

Carla watched them both and then said she might as well get tested herself… just in case but when her results came back the same, she suddenly felt like crying too.

When Ken had come out and saw his two kids and daughter in law all looking so solemn, he shook his head and said,

"Honestly… look at the three of you… I'm going to be fine."

He wasn't going to be fine and they knew it, but what else could they do but nod?

They eventually all went home that day and even though they were still gutted, their moods soon improved.

Ken was on break from the chemotherapy, so that his body could recover from the side effects and he was thrilled, he actually went for a little drink with some of his friends and had a lot of fun.

Tracy had made a real effort with Amy, deciding that she wanted to spend as much time with her daughter as possible and Peter?

Well Peter did the same with Simon and made up for a lot of lost time, Simon was overjoyed to have hid Dad back around so much and spent as much time as he could just kicking a football about with him and telling him all about school.

People were still talking about though... About Peter's grand return. Some believed he was back for his family, whilst others were still saying that he was definitely back for Carla.

People were also calling her foolish.

For not agreeing to marry Nick or for being in contact with Peter again... Carla wasn't sure but she did her best to ignore it all anyway.

She tried to ignore the looks she got as she walked home from work or to Ken's house.

She would just roll her eyes at the silly comments that were being slyly said around her and she told herself that as long as Peter was okay… she'd be okay… after all they were in this together.

Days turned into weeks and then… on a Thursday night, at around eight pm her buzzer went off.

"Hello?" Carla said casually, guessing it'd be Michelle or Peter as they were really the only people that visited her.

"It's… Peter." His trembling voice echoed through the speaker on Carla's intercom and made her blood run cold. She clumsily pressed the button to open the door for him because just by the sound of his voice… she could already tell… something was wrong.

* * *

 ** _I know this chapter wasn't very Carter-y (Does that even make sense?) but I promise that the next one is going to be filled with the pair of them._**

 ** _Don't forget to review! :)_**


	17. You've Got Me

**_Soooooooooo sorry I have waited so long before updating this one._**

 ** _I have missed writing it soooo much because it's one of my faves._**

 ** _Enjoy..._**

* * *

Carla opened her front door and stood in the door fame, waiting for Peter to come up stairs.

Her heart was pounding as she waited and she was almost shaking at the thought of what she might see.

 ** _"_ _It's Peter…"_**

Just that small sentence scared the life out of her.

It was in the way his voice broke.

It was in the way that she could instantly tell that he was crying just by the sound of his breathing and the thought of Peter crying so freely worried her to no end.

By the time she saw him… her heart felt as if it was about to burst right through her chest.

Peter still had tears in his eyes as he walked up the steps towards her, his breathing was still rigid and he was only wearing a black T-Shirt and jeans even though the weather outside had started to get cold and he must have been freezing on the walk here.

Carla wondered where on earth he had come from and had hoped it was only from his Dad's and not somewhere else.

Her throat was dry and she had to clear it before speaking.

Seeing the man she loved in such a state was highly disturbing but she tried her very best to remain strong... for Peter's sake only.

"Peter…" Carla called softly, holding out her arms as he stumbled up the last few steps.

For a very small moment she wondered if maybe… just maybe he had been drinking but when she looked deep into his brown eyes she saw nothing but pain.

Pain and devastation.

"Peter, what is it?" She asked as he walked towards her and sniffed hard, as if now that he was face to face with her, he was trying to act brave.

He didn't answer her.

In fact he didn't say anything, he just blinked through those last remaining tears and took hold of the hands that Carla had held out for him.

She pulled him towards her in an embrace and hoped that this hug would be what he needed to start speaking again.

She didn't say much this time, she just held him close and gently stroked his back supportively but sill there was nothing.

He said absolutely nothing.

Instead, he eventually pulled away from Carla but it was only so he could get in the position to passionately press his lips against hers.

He did it in such a forceful and dominant way that it sent them both flying towards her front door.

Normally Carla would have pushed him away.

Normally she would have stopped it because she knew that whatever was on Peter's mind was something big, especially due to the fact that she could almost feel his heart pound beneath his T-Shirt.

Normally she would try to stop him from kissing her this way because he was clearly distressed about something huge but in this current situation she was utterly powerless.

After all, it had been almost a month since she and Peter had had any form of sexual contact and even though every moral bone in her body told her to stop this and make him talk, Carla knew that she had to let her desires be fed… even if it was just for tonight.

When their lips had touched, Peter's hand had gone straight into Carla's hair and before she could even comprehend what was happening, she was completely taken over by his kiss.

She let his tongue explore her mouth whilst they continued to move sideways into her flat.

Even thought it had been a while... weeks, a month in fact, they still moved perfectly together, in a rhythm that meant they didn't have to even stop what they were doing to make sure that the door behind them closed shut.

He effortlessly spun her around and her foot kicked the door closed whilst their hands became re-acquainted with each other's bodies.

"Peter…" Carla said when he finally stopped kissing her and when they had a few seconds for some air, "Darlin… please… tell me what's wrong." She watched as he shook his head slowly at her and licked his lips in a state of disorganised arousal.

On one hand Peter wanted to stop there, to take Carla over to her sofa and tell her everything that was on his mind because he was utterly distraught and on the other hand all he wanted was her touch.

He just wanted her embrace.

He just wanted her to hold him close.

He thought about things for a second and then went for the second option… deciding that maybe he wasn't quite ready to reveal the horrible circumstances that brought him to her flat on that cold night.

Carla watched whilst Peter contemplated his next actions and what he was going to do next was clear by the sharp intake of breath that he took.

Their next kiss was so intense, so mighty, that Carla felt her legs go weak.

Reminiscent of the start of their affair… of that night when he turned up in Weatherfield again and when he had turned Carla's world upside down, Peter and his tongue, guided her towards her kitchen.

She groaned into his lips as his hands ran all over the black dress that she had carefully selected earlier because she was supposed to be meeting Michelle for a night on the town later on that night.

Naturally, that night on town with Michelle never happened.

Instead… just like that first night, Peter took complete control and Carla let him guide her over to her kitchen counter.

She let him hitch up her dress and take hold of her red knickers.

She let him get down on both knees to pull them down and she let him help her step out of them.

Her breathing was harsh due to how much longer she couldn't wait for Peter to begin on her body and she was about to let him start placing soft kisses on her legs and thighs, just like he had done in the past... but he didn't.

He paused.

He was still sat on his knees and breathing just as rigidly as before.

He didn't do or say anything at first.

He just sat there and then… then he suddenly wrapped his arms around Carla's bare legs and completely broke down.

"Peter…" she breathed, in shock because once again he was in another uncontrollable state of tears as he clung onto her.

"I'm sorry…" he eventually got out, almost chocking on his tears as he spoke.

He had so hoped he would have been able to get through this.

That he would have been able to spend some time forgetting everything that he had heard over the evening but no, here he was, on the floor like a child and unable to stop himself from almost bawling at Carla's feet.

"Sorry?" She stammered, almost in tears herself at the sight of Peter vulnerably clinging on to her legs. "Peter, what on earth for?"

"I… I just didn't know where else to go." Peter said, shaking his head as Carla gently pushed him away from her. She got down onto the floor so that she was sat in front of him and said,

"Don't be ridiculous… what did I tell you eh? Anytime you want to talk… I'm ere…" She had guessed that all of this was to do with his Ken's illness.

She had guessed that even though Peter had remained very strong and positive about his Dad's illness over the past weeks, something must have triggered this reaction, something must have happened for Peter to so suddenly become this distraught.

"Yeah but you were meant to be out with Chelle tonight…" Peter sniffed, thinking about how Carla had made her plans for the evening mighty clear when they had spoken earlier on that day.

It had only been a quick phone conversation but it was a conversation of joy and it really had put Peter in a good mood... until now.

"Chelle can wait…" Carla said softly, staring at Peter and looking concerned yet still in awe also.

It was unnerving to see Peter this way and she was desperate to find out what triggered these tears but also, at the same time she didn't want to push him into anything.

So, they sat in silence for a moment.

On her kitchen floor and both in front of one another.

After a while they both readjusted their sitting positions so that they were sat on their bottoms rather than uncomfortably on their knees.

The silence was full of the sounds of their breathing and every so often Peter would clear his hoarse throat.

"Do… you want a brew?" Carla asked, after a few more moments of unbearable silence.

"No…" Peter said, shaking his head and staring straight back at her. "Just you."

"You've got me…" Carla began, leaning forward and taking hold of one his hands. "Always Peter and whatever has happened… I'll still be ere, okay?"

Peter nodded at Carla and held her hand tight, knowing that what she had just said to him was one-hundred per-cent truth.

There was a gulp, a sniff and then Peter started to speak.

"It's me Dad…"

"Yeah… I thought as much." Carla replied when Peter paused, she kept hold of his hand and waited patiently for him to continue.

"He's… giving up…" Peter eventually said and a rogue tear fell down his cheek as he said the words he wished that he never had to.

"What?" Carla replied quietly, "I don't… get it… isn't he due to start his next round of chemo tomorrow?"

"Yes… but he said he's not going… he said no more… that he's taking back control of his life." Peter said, shaking his head because he just couldn't understand… any of it.

Earlier on that evening Ken had sat down his two children and told them that he had made the decision to not have any more treatment.

He told them that his Doctor had revealed that the chemotherapy he had the first time around hasn't achieved any real results.

He told that his Doctor also said that this next round of chemotherapy would have to be at a higher dosage and frequency which would leave him feeling a hell of a lot worse than he had done the first time.

He told Peter and Tracy that the past few weeks he had spent without having to have any chemotherapy had been totally joyous.

He told them that he actually felt wonderful, that the weeks he had spent with his family and friends had made him truly content.

He told them that the very last thing he wanted to do tomorrow was to let go of how wonderful his life was and go back to feeling the worst he had ever done in his life.

Ken told his children that he hadn't taken this decision lightly, that he had thought about it lots and lots… he said that whenever the time for him to die came… he was ready… he was ready to join his beloved Deirdre.

As Ken expected, Tracy and Peter did not take any this news well but in very different ways.

Tracy burst into tears first but she surprised Ken because straight away she said that she understood.

She said she couldn't imagine how her Dad must be feeling and even though his decision was a very upsetting one, she would support him the whole way through it.

Peter's reaction also surprised Ken because it was the opposite to what he had been expecting.

It surprised Ken because out of his two children Ken thought that Tracy would have been the one not to understand… not Peter.

Peter was the more rational child out of the two, the one who thought things through the most and the one who had been remaining the strongest throughout this whole ordeal.

"Dad… you can't do this…" Peter said, "You can't just give up like this… you can't let this thing end your life."

"Peter… I'm an old man… I've lived a life and a pretty full one at that." Ken began, "I want to spend what ever time I have left being happy."

"And what about us?" Peter cried, shocking everyone at the table, which they had been sat at as he raised his voice. "We're your family Dad… Do you not care what we have to say on the matter?"

"No… not really…" Ken began, causing Peter to become even more erratic. "As horrible as it is to hear Peter… this is not your choice, it's mine."

"That's really unfair." Peter said, not really thinking about the situation properly at all, he was just too upset at the thought of his Dad dying to function properly.

"Well Peter… I'm sorry but I won't feel obliged to take on this next set of chemotherapy just because you think it's unfair." Ken said, "I want to spend as much time with you, Tracy, Amy, Simon… my friends as possible and I want to do it as me… As the old saying goes… it's quality not quantity Peter."

Ken really didn't expect Peter to have reacted the way he did to this comment.

He didn't expect Peter to shout so much.

He didn't expect call him selfish, to say that ever since he was a kid he thought his Dad was selfish and for him to have stormed out of the house they way he did but he understood it all and he knew that once Peter had really thought about everything he would understand.

"Peter…" Carla said, once he had explained everything to her properly. "I get it… the way you're feeling… I really do but… I think your Dad is making the right choice."

"What?" Peter cried, "How on earth?..." He was on the verge of tears as Carla moved closer to him and said,

"Peter… you saw what the chemo was doing to your Dad… it made him weak… he wasn't himself you know that." Carla said, "Is that really what you want your last memories of him to be? A man you barley recognise?"

"They might not be the last memories Carla… he could get through this… he could fight it... I know he could." Peter sniffed, although it was clear that now all of this had had a chance to sink in, he understood a little more about the decision his Dad had made.

"Yeah… he could fight it… but he might not be able to and most of all he doesn't want to… not anymore" Carla said.

"That's selfish…" Peter said, again not really thinking properly about any of this.

"No Peter… you're being selfish." Carla replied, slightly worried about annoying Peter but saying it anyway because it needed to be said. "Darlin do you really want your Dad to go through endless chemotherapy sessions just because you're scared about loosing him?"

Peter didn't answer Carla this time because ultimately he knew that she was one hundred per-cent right… and he hated that.

"This chemo… Peter, it's eaten away at him as well as the cancer has done… It's heart wrenching but I can totally understand why he's made this decision and you know what?" Carla paused as Peter looked down at his hands instead of her like he had been doing.

She took her free hand and lifted his chin so that his eyes were now level with hers and said,

"I reckon you understand your Dad a lot more then you're letting on."

"No." Peter replied, shaking his head but not at all convincingly. "I don't understand… not at all… I don't understand how he can leave us… he can't Carla… he can't do this… not my Dad... he can't die."

"Yes he can Peter…" Carla said delicately, "Everyone has to go at some point and your Dad just wants to have some sort of say in the situation that's all… The only reason you're behaving this way is because you're in shock that's all."

Peter nodded, defeated, heart broken and feeling guilty for the way he reacted.

He sniffed again and put his head into his hands, which made Carla lean even more forward and put her arms right around him.

"I'm scared Carla…" Peter sobbed, into her chest. "So scared."

"I know baby… you have every right to be as well but this is completely your Dad's decision I'm afraid… n even if you really do hate it… even if it scares the shit out of you, you've got to respect it." Carla replied, stroking his head softly and kissing him on the part that was next to her lips. "It's going to take time for you to get used to all this that's all."

They both stayed in that heap on the floor in front of Carla's kitchen counter for a long while.

Long enough for Carla's phone to start ringing and ringing because it was now nine pm and she was supposed to have met Michelle half an hour ago.

Carla didn't answer it, she just sat with her arms tightly around Peter and closed her eyes until he said quietly,

"I was… so horrible to him."

"He'll understand…" Carla said with a soft sigh, "I know he will."

"I hope he will." Peter sniffed, sitting up and wiping his eyes. as Carla's phone, which she had left on coffee table earlier began ringing again. "You should probably answer that."

"It'll be Chelle…" She said, getting up off the floor and ruffling the hair on Peter's head affectionately as she walked away from him. "Ello…" She said knowing she was about to get an earful.

Peter watched Carla as she apologised to her best friend and as she said that something unexpected came up.

As he climbed to his feet, he wondered just how much of this story Michelle was actually buying and as Carla hung up, he shook his head at her and said a very heart felt and apologetic,

"I'm sorry for turning up like this… I've ruined your night out haven't I?"

"No…" Carla said, putting her phone down and shaking her head. "Seriously Peter, I'd so rather you come ere than be doing something else…" She trailed off as she thought about what Peter could have done when feeling this low. "Chelle sounded a little pissed but oh well… I'll deal with her tomorrow."

Carla then smirked as she glanced down at her underwear, which was on the floor right by where Peter was stood, he saw the look on her face and followed her gaze over to the red knickers which were only centimetres by his feet.

"Pass em over then." Carla said as Peter continued to look down.

"Do I ave to?" He grinned prompting Carla to let out one of her famous dirty giggles and say,

"Yes you do… It's hardly appropriate for me to go to your Dad's place without me knickers on is it?" Peter had been in the middle of picking up Carla's underwear when he heard what she had said.

"Eh?" He asked, standing up right.

"I reckon we should go n let him know you're okay don't you?" Carla said.

"You don't ave to come…" Peter said, "You can meet Michelle…"

"I know… I want to come… if that's okay with you." Carla said, reaching forward as Peter handed over her red knickers. She smirked again as she took them off him and he looked sheepishly away as she bent down to put them back on. "So..." Carla said once she was done, "Is it okay if I come… with you."

"Sure." Peter nodded unable to ignore the suggestiveness of what Carla just said.

As hard as it was… to ignore the great and incredibly sexual atmosphere between them, they both left Carla's flat.

They took the short walk across from Victoria Court towards Number One Coronation Street and on the way there, of course they just had to bump into Nick Tilsley.

Peter and Carla were just walking next to each other, barley even touching but it was clear that their company still totally affected Nick.

No one said anything of course.

Peter didn't have the energy in him to say or do anything, Nick didn't have the guts and Carla didn't see the point.

So after an awkward moment of eye contact Nick continued walking.

Instead of walking through the gap that Carla and Peter had left, he walked around them and Peter watched as Nick entered the pub looking extremely sorry for himself.

"Come on…" Carla sighed heavily, she made Peter continue walking forwards and when they got to Number one she knocked on the door.

Ken answered it and when he and Peter saw each other, they both smiled bitter sweetly at each other.

"I've been so worried about you." Ken said, even though Peter had only been gone just over an hour.

"I'm so sorry Dad…" Peter said and within seconds they were in each other's arms.

"Don't worry about it." Ken said with a sniff as Carla watched nearby. "Honestly Peter… all that matters is that we spend what ever time we have left together…happy."

"I know... I know." Peter nodded sadly.

Ken and Peter both let go of each other and it was then that Ken noticed Carla's presence.

"I should ave known…" he said smiling at her and nodding, "I should ave known he was with you."

"What can I say…" Carla grinned, "That's what friends slash mistresses slash wives are for right?"

Carla didn't know this at the time, but her calling herself Peter's wife moved him.

He smiled from ear to ear at her off hand comment as they walked into Number one and the rest of their time there was full of smiles and tears.

Ken sat back down in his seat and spoke some more about the decision he had made.

He explained it some more even though Peter insisted that he didn't have to.

He explained it until there were more tears but these tears were companionable ones, ones that every person in that living room couldn't escape.

* * *

"Thank you for tonight…" Peter said, as he walked Carla home, almost an hour and a half since they had both arrived at his Dad's.

"Don't mention it." Carla said shaking her head, "Y'know you really didn't ave to walk me home… I mean it's hardly far away is it?"

"I know I don't ave to… but I wanted to." Peter said with a smile, one that Carla couldn't help but smile back at. "And I meant what I said… I am so thankful for what you've done for me… I don't deserve it... y'know."

"Stop it Peter…" Carla said shaking her head again. When they had got to the door of her building, she pulled her keys out of her leather jacket's pocket and said, "Well… I guess I'll see ya tomorrow then…"

"Yeah… tomorrow." Peter nodded but he was still grinning at Carla in a way she was all too familiar with, it was full of seduction and as Peter moved closer to her she wasn't sure what was going to happen next.

"Night night then." Carla replied, smiling back at Peter infectiously as he looked her up and down.

There was a pause, one that for a moment made them both shiver in the cold.

"Night night." Peter eventually said before starting to reluctantly walk away from Carla.

He prayed that she would cave first.

That she would do what she did when he had walked away that first night and call him back over... even if it was an insult.

She did... but this time it wasn't an insult.

"You know a goodnight kiss wouldn't go a miss." She called after him.

He spun around immediately and walked towards Carla as she continued,

"You keep saying thank you, how about you show me just how thankful you are eh?"

Peter didn't need to be asked twice to kiss Carla.

Not only did he kiss her but he also lifted her right off her feet. He had both arms wrapped around her middle and her arms went around his neck as she let his tongue between her parted lips.

"How's that?" he asked, putting her down after a rather immense kiss. He knew full well what kind of effect he had on her but wanted confirmation all the same. Carla took hold of Peter by his belt and nodded at him triumphantly before saying,

"Almost perfect…"

"Almost?" Peter groaned, realising where Carla's hand was now placed and also that they were still in public as well.

"Yeah… it would have been better had it been in my bed." She replied, dragging Peter a little more forward so that they were both pressed right up against her front door. "and if we were naked." She added with eyes full of uncontrollable passion.

"I thought you said you never wanted me in your bed again?" Peter reminded, as Carla arched her back and pushed her self up against him in away that could only really have one effect on him. He gasped sharply as Carla licked her lips and said,

"Oh I've changed me mind…I want nothing but _you_ in my bed."

"Well…" Peter breathed as she actually went as far as sliding her hand down his jeans. He hadn't even noticed she had undone them at first. "What did we say about doing stuff like this?" Peter said, remembering how he had told Carla that he wanted his Dad to get better before they resumed with their relationship properly but not actually meaning a word of it.

"You mean what did _you_ say?" Carla whispered, pressing her body up against Peter's again out of frustration… "I never said anything… I just agreed with you."

"So… what's this?" Peter asked, glad it was dark outside and that no one could see just what was happening right about now. "Are you..." he took another breath to calm himself, "Are you all of a sudden disagreeing?" Carla still had an impatient hand down his jeans and he was obviously finding it very hard to control himself in such a situation.

"Absolutely." Carla responded with a seductive nod before quickly pulling her hand out of Peter's jeans. He didn't leave her the chance to do anything else because he leant forward and pushed his lips against hers once more. His tongue slid straight back inside her mouth as if it was trying desperately to find hers and the longer they kissed the more felt his need growing for her.

"Open the door…" He said into her mouth as he ran a hand right up her dress deciding she needed a taste of her own medicine.

"Or what?" She giggled, more than aware that anyone could open the door they were pressed up against at any moment or that anyone could stumble upon their heated exchanged too.

"Or I'll ave you right ere… right now." Peter breathed, taking one hand and prising Carla's legs apart, she just beamed at him excitedly, at first not caring less if they did indeed have sex on her doorstep.

Who was going to see? It was gone eleven pm and the street was fairly quiet by now.

"Is... that supposed to make me move quicker cause…" Carla trailed off as Peter had one hand between her thighs and the other on her behind. "Peter…" she breathed as he started leaving fllthy kisses on her neck.

"Open the door… now." He begged, "The pub will be closing soon…"

"And..." Carla challenged, her hands now up Peter's T-Shirt as she stood before him.

"Fine..." Peter nodded deciding to go a different way about things. "I just hope you avent forgotten who else lives in this building... I mean, you don't want Nick comin ere n seeing just what he's missing... do ya?"

"Oi…" Carla said with half a laugh because she just couldn't help it but Peter's comment was enough to make her turn around and clumsily open her front door.

Seeing this, her being pressed up against her door with Peter's hand naughtily up her dress would probably be the final nail in the coffin for Nick, so Carla made sure she opened it as quickly as possible. Once inside she spun back around and faced Peter, who licked his bottom lip before saying a very impatient,

"Keep going…" Carla took hold of Peter's hand and pulled her up the stairs with him. "I hate this building…" he groaned as they got to the next flight of stairs, "Why don't you ave a lift?"

"Yeah…" Carla breathed, suddenly kissing Peter roughly as she pulled him up the next flight of stairs by his T-Shirt. "I can only imagine what would be happening if you n me got inside a lift right now."

She and Peter continued to make their way to her door and as she opened it, Peter kissed her on the neck from behind and breathed,

"Finally... get in there… now." The door swung open and as he and Carla went inside she pulled off her leather jacket without thinking twice.

Peter stood by the door and watched as she threw her jacket onto the floor and kicked off her shoes impatiently, he was transfixed by her as she stood before him excitedly with her teeth sunk into her bottom lip.

"Peter…" Carla said, with wide eyes. He was running his gaze up and down her body and only met hers when she said, "Get over ere gorgeous."

Peter gave Carla a perfect grin and then moved towards her. She reached out and grabbed hold of his T-Shirt once and pulled him towards her.

"Be mine…" She said, pushing her lips against his playfully. "Properly... be my husband again."

"Of course…" Peter replied, smiling into the next kiss he received. "I mean how could I say no?" They couldn't keep their hands off each other, as they laughed and stumbled towards her bedroom. Once inside it, they began to undress each other as fast as they could.

Carla had had his jeans undone for a while now and she had them down by his ankles within seconds. As he stepped out of them she pulled down his boxers and as she was already on her knees, she smirked up at him before leaning ever so slightly forward and bringing him closer to her by his bottom.

"Ohh no you don't." Peter said, shaking his head and pulling her up and onto her feet.

He could have just let her pleasure him but he knew this moment between should be more than just their physical need for each other.

He took a hand and placed it upon Carla's cheek before kissing her tenderly on the lips.

He then pulled her dress off in one swift motion and before she knew it he had pulled her onto her bed.

His T-Shirt was thrown onto the floor next to the bed and her bra soon followed.

With Carla already writhing underneath him, Peter wanted to slow things down a bit, so he leant forward and kissed her softly on the lips.

It was a totally different kiss than the one she had received from him when he had first arrived hours ago and as their lips parted he said,

"I really love you."

"Mmmmm…" Carla nodded, "I love you too… and no matter what happens… I always will."

As Carla wrapped her legs around his waist, Peter hastily pulled her up and onto his lap. Her legs hung off the side off her bed as Peter ran a hand through her hair and down her back. She smiled peacefully at Peter and then said,

"Do ya know what?"

"What?" He replied serenely, in a state of pure bliss right now.

"I reckon... we make tonight the first night of plenty." Carla was playing with his hair now, she had a hand rested on the back of his neck and was stroking it ever so slightly, just enough to make goosebumps run up and down both of Peter's arms. He smiled back at Carla lovingly and said,

"I reckon that you're on to something…"

* * *

 ** _I'm not sure if you can tell but I feel like this may be coming to a slight end soon... As I said earlier it is one of my fave fics but I do feel like this particular story might be almost told._**

 ** _Anywho... please let me know what you thought about this chapter & whether you want more or not._**

 ** _I still love reading every single review. :)_**


	18. The Elephant In The Room

Peter awoke.

He awoke in a place that he had spent the past few months wishing he'd get the chance to wake up in.

He awoke at eight thirty eight am in a place that he had once truly believed he'd never get back into.

Yet here he was, on a Friday morning in beneath the black, silky covers of that place he so needed to be.

Carla's bed.

He awoke alone and sat up to hear someone moving about in the kitchen... her... she was only metres away and that felt like it was too far.

He awoke naked but he got up off the bed feeling a lot more than just satisfied from last night.

Last night meant... last night... last night meant the world.

Last night meant that he and Carla were no longer "friends" and last night she had even asked him to be her husband again, although now... Peter wasn't too sure if that was just something that Carla had said in the moment.

Last night… After the obvious that is, Peter and Carla both spent it in each other's arms, in a state they had both promised each other they wouldn't.

Peter shook his head and chuckled at the rules they had made months ago, the ones that they had only made because they were too weak, too stubborn and or scared to admit that they were still madly in love with each other and even though he had only spent a few moments alone, Peter quickly got dressed because he didn't want to spent a single second without Carla.

The news that his Dad didn't want to carry on with his chemotherapy still had him terrified, it still turned his blood cold and made him short of breath but he felt slightly more at ease about it now and that was mainly because of Carla.

Her love, her support and her touch made him feel invincible.

When he walked into the kitchen, he found her stood in a black dressing gown with her kettle in hand.

She was stood there, with no make up on and with a lot of rather messy hair but Peter still thought Carla looked absolutely mesmerising although he couldn't help but wonder how come she hadn't woke him and just how long she had been up on her own.

"Mornin…" She said lazily as Peter gingerly approached her, rubbing his tired eyes and dragging his two feet.

"Good Morning." Peter replied with a shy smile, one that Carla couldn't help but find totally adorable.

She knew what he was thinking, that she had maybe gotten up and tried to make a swift exit so that they didn't wake up next to each other.

"Don't worry…" She began, she was stood at the kitchen counter next to two mugs that she had filled with coffee and she was rather glad that Peter had woken up when he did because that meant she could fill his cup up too. "I didn't ditch you… I've just been up for hours n you looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake ya." She said taking some milk from the fridge and unscrewing the lid.

"Oh right." Peter nodded, watching Carla as she turned her back to him and began pouring milk into the mugs that she had prepared, She clearly had no clothes on underneath that dressing gown she had put on this morning which Peter found more than a little bit distracting.

"Peter!" Carla suddenly called out, for the second time that is because he hadn't even heard the first.

"Errrr yeah…" He quickly said, snapping right out of his day dream as he licked his bottom lip, trying to refrain from staring too much.

"D'ya still take sugar in your brew?" Carla asked with her head on one side, aware that she had his complete attention and affection.

"Yeah I'll ave two please…" Peter replied. "And a few biscuits if you're offering." He cheekily added.

"You'll rot your teeth y'know." Carla grinned, turning back around before reaching over to the sugar pot, she did what she always used to do when Peter asked her for two sugars and gave him one, smiling down at the mug foolishly and reminiscing on how he would never notice it either.

He jusr continued to watch her and when she turned around she caught him staring… again.

"Here…" Carla smirked with a raised eyebrow, before handing him a mug of steaming hot coffee.

"Did ya not ave any biscuits then?" Peter asked as he took the mug off Carla.

"Anything else?" She sighed with half a laugh walking back over to her kitchen, she rifled through her cupboard until she produced a packet of chocolate digestives and said, "Will these do?"

"Perfect." Peter nodded triumphantly, enjoying this extremely normal routine they were taking part in.

It was almost as if they were like any other couple… well almost.

There was a massive elephant in the room, one that was about to be addressed at any moment now.

Carla brought the digestive biscuits with her back over to where Peter stood and gestured towards her dining table as she said,

"Take a seat Peter." In a rather authoritative tone, one that had Peter suddenly a little scared.

It was the same table she had sat him down at before. That night when they were laying down rules as a part of their wicked and deceiving games.

Peter took one look at the space she had asked him to sit in and then grinned nervously.

"Uh oh…" He said, taking his coffee cup and sitting down at the table, he stumbled on his way down and Carla knew he was slightly worried about what was to come.

"Oh don't uh oh like that…" Carla said with a smile, walking over to the table and not sitting down on the other end of it but sitting on the chair closest to Peter, he chuckled as she put her mug down and pulled her chair closer.

"Am I in trouble?" he asked.

"No… Course not ya pillock." Carla cried, shaking her head with a light sigh. "We just need to talk that's all… I mean… I ave some stuff I need to say…"

"Okay..." Peter breathed, not knowing what Carla was about to say but hoping it wasn't going to be that she regretted last night.

"Don't look so nervous darlin…" Carla said giving Peter a coy poke in the stomach.

There was a pause, a long one. Carla didn't know quite where to start so instead she just sat in front of Peter.

"Erm…" He said with a laugh, causing Carla to giggle also.

"I'm sorry…" She said with a shake of her head, her tousled brown hair moved with it and as she tucked some of it behind her ear she said, "First of all… last night was… Out of this world." What she said made Peter smile and as he did so Carla then took a deep breath before continuing. "As I said I've been awake for ages now… thinking and I just… I know I said I wanted you to be my husband again but… well I ave to be honest ere Peter..." Peter's smile soon faded Carla shook her head and said, "I'm… still not over what you did to me."

Peter nodded.

What else could he do?

Carla had every right to still not be over what he did to her and if he was being one hundred percent honest with himself he knew she would probably never be over it.

Once again he felt his blood run cold.

He felt short of breath and like his whole world was about to fall apart but he couldn't do too much about it because Carla was totally justified.

There was a silence before she spoke again, she was still looking at him lovingly and after taking a large sip of coffee she said,

"You… ya get that right?"

"Yes. Yes I do." Peter said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair and swallowing as Carla put her mug down onto the table.

She sighed and ran a hand through her long hair before biting her lip and saying,

"I really want to believe that you've changed Peter… but… well look what happened with us…" She paused because she was about to tread on dangerous territory with her next comment but in the end she went ahead and said it anyway because it needed to be said.

Peter needed to hear this.

"Peter you cheated… again..."

Peter could have probably burst into an irate set of tears right there and then.

Once again, he knew that Carla was absolutely right here, that he had cheated again but hearing it like that still made him feel about two centimetres tall.

He was also feeling slightly frustrated because Carla was no angel… in fact she was nothing of the sort and Peter felt like telling her a little bit about that...

Only at this point he knew he was probably the closest he'd ever been to getting her back and he didn't want to do anything at all to ruin this precious chance.

Carla on the other hand, could tell what she had just said had upset and angered Peter.

She saw it in the way he had flinched when she said it and how his fists had clenched tightly in his lap.

Now this wasn't particularly something that she wanted to talk about.

She loved Peter insanely and she didn't want to hurt or upset him in any way shape or form but she also knew had to be honest with him.

Peter cleared his throat and shook his head a little at a loss of words before eventually saying,

"I…" He paused and then shook his head frustratedly, "You know what? Never mind."

"No… go on." Carla said with a frown, "Peter?" She said after he had shook his head again. "Say it… what ever it is."

"It doesn't matter." He said in his best casual voice but Carla wasn't having any of this sort of behaviour from Peter at all.

She sighed and moved her chair to that she was sitting directly opposite him and said,

"You know what whilst we're ere I think we should take this time to sit and be one hundred per-cent honest with each other… get everything off our chests… no matter how awkward, no matter how much it's going to annoy the other we should just say what's on our minds."

"Really?" Peter asked with an eyebrow raised, knowing what he was about to say to Carla would annoy her no end, in fact he was quite sure he might earn a smack because of it, especially since the last time he brought it up he got one.

"Yes really… Peter if we ave any hope in making it... we ave to be honest… I mean after all... Maybe if we had have been honest with each other earlier on things wouldn't have gotten this far… and I don't just mean since you've been back… I mean before… when we were still together..." Carla said and she had a look in her eyes that told Peter that she truly did believe that they would be able to make it.

So he nodded and swallowed before he said,

"Okay… Let's be honest."

"Good." Carla nodded triumphantly, "What were you about to say earlier then?"

Peter waited a moment.

He thought over it once more in his head and decided that he had to be truthful.

After all that's what Carla wanted wasn't it?

"I was gonna say that I really do understand how you feel about my cheating… but you my dear… well you're no angel in this situation are you? I mean you cheated on Nick… and I really hate to say it but it's not the first time you've cheated on one of your partners either…" Peter stopped talking when the look of hope in Carla's eyes soon turned to one of anger and as she looked down at her lap he was sure he was about to regret what he had just said.

Carla sighed deeply.

She exhaled and tried her very best not to lash out at what Peter had just said even though it really had touched a nerve with her.

It only took her a few seconds and for her to swallow her pride for Carla to realise that Peter did have a very valid point.

She had cheated on Nick and Tony for that matter but she still couldn't help but look up at Peter and then say,

"It's... different."

"What is?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow and hoping that Carla wasn't going to try and wriggle her way out of his because as far as he was concerned he had every right to mention how he felt about her past.

"My cheating." Carla said, slightly regretting this _Let's Be Honest_ conversation now.

"Oh yeah?" Peter asked, leaning back on his chair feeling a little amused at Carla's nerve.

"Yeah…" She said with tears in her green eyes, ones that were now on the verge of spilling right down her cheeks. "Because… I didn't cheat on _you_."

That kept Peter quiet for a moment but only for a moment because he replied shortly afterwards with,

"So… it's alright that you've also cheated because that cheating wasn't on me?" Peter asked, trying to keep his tone of voice level because he didn't want to sound sarcastic or angry or anything that was going to maybe start an argument.

"Yes." Carla said bluntly but then she changed heart. "Well… no obviously not, cheating is never okay but…" She sighed and sniffed as she still had tears in her eyes and was trying not to let them fall as she continued to speak. "Peter... I would never... ever ave cheated on you... and I never will... and I know that you know that's the god's honest truth."

Peter nodded.

He nodded because he did know.

He knew just how much Carla had loved him and that she would have never done what he did, not in a million years.

He looked down at his hands and then chewed his lip because he wasn't sure what to say next, thankfully Carla spoke for him.

"Look… we've been through all this before Peter… You've cheated, I've cheated… what we need to do now is talk about the future… how to move on from this y'know?"

"Yes." Peter nodded and then there was another silence.

One where they both sat opposite each other for a moment.

Carla took another sip of her coffee whilst Peter just sat there and it was another few minutes before she eventually cleared her throat and asked,

"Have you ever been cheated on Peter?"

He stopped for a moment and watched her.

Surely not.

Surely she hadn't forgotten that Leanne had been the one to cheat on him first… with Nick Tilsley of all people.

After all she had been there through it all and had actually known about it too.

"Leanne…" he said nodded his head slowly. "With Nick."

Carla hadn't actually forgotten about Leanne, she was actually asking Peter a rhetorical question because she knew that he knew just what it felt like to be cheated on.

"Exactly…. so you know… when someone cheats on you… someone you really love… it changes you… it changes the way you relate to them and the way you trust them." Carla watched Peter nod along with what she was saying and when he went to say something that looked like it might be in defence she quickly said, "Peter I was there… I saw you with Leanne n I know that you didn't trust her the same way again so don't even try to say you did."

"I wasn't..." Peter replied shaking his head, "What I was actually going to say was that I would totally understand if you felt like you couldn't trust me again and I would totally understand if you changed your mind about us... but you ave to know that I have learnt my lesson. Losing you… and our baby…" His voice cracked when he said the word _baby_ and Carla had to take a deep breath to not start crying there and then.

Peter suddenly looked apologetic for mentioning their baby but Carla just shook her head and said,

"Go on... continue."

"Erm well... losing you both it almost killed me Carla… literally and I know that I would be an absolute idiot to do anything to hurt you again." Peter said sadly.

"You say that now Peter… n yeah… me n you could pick up where we left off and things might be great for a while but what happens if it's not… Peter I don't think I ave it in me to lose you again." Carla said, shaking her head at the mere thought of not having Peter around every day.

At the mere thought of him leaving again.

At the mere thought of him finding someone else, loving someone else… someone that wasn't her.

These thoughts were petrifying, thoughts that made her shiver on her seat and feel extremely sick.

She swallowed hard and tried to stay calm as a tear finally escaped and sped down her cheek.

Peter saw this, he saw the effect he had had on Carla and he knew he had to everything he can to make her feel like he was ready for this.

Like he was completely ready to be her husband again.

He moved forwards and took hold of Carla's hand before he spoke.

"Carla… that's just it. You won't lose me again… not ever… I swear to god I will never ever leave you."

His words sounded heart felt.

His words sounded true and his words sounded like heaven to Carla but he could still tell that she had slight doubts as she sat before him and sniffed,

"I mean it." he said firmly, staring right into her eyes and not daring to look away for even a spilt second.

"So… you're not too messed up to be with me anymore?" Carla asked, staring affectionately back at Peter with her head on one side.

"Oh I'm messed up… royally so…" Peter said with a smirk, "But everything that's happened recently with my Dad has really made me see things differently… n what I've learnt it that life is way too short for us to be wasting time like this… I mean me n you should be together Carla… we should be enjoying married life and not having any sort of conversations like this, there should be no situations where there is even a possibility that me n you won't grow old together... You were right though… I never did trust Leanne the same again after what she did to me with Nick… but…"

"But?" Carla asked as Peter stopped to take breath.

"But… I did give her another chance… and Carla… that's all I need… a chance to show you that I have changed." Peter said quietly and hopefully.

He almost closed his eyes he was so hopeful.

"I thought you said me n you were no good for each other?" Carla added with a small smirk, one that showed Peter that she was just messing about and trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh that was just the idiot in me talking…" Peter said, "He tends to crop up from time to time... just ignore him." Carla giggled at Peter as he rolled his eyes and then sniffed because he was on the verge of tears now too.

Carla looked apologetically at him and squeezed his hand tight before saying,

"Peter… I know that everything you ave happening with your Dad right now means you don't need this kind of thing… I just wanted all of this stuff to be out in the open y'know… and you were right… I'm no saint… I've done some terrible things in the past but all of that stops now okay… this is it… a new beginning… for both of us... okay?"

"Okay…" Peter said with a nod, Carla smiled at him from ear to ear and looked down at their entwined hands as he took a very large sigh of relief and said, "God I was so scared when you said sit down."

"Yeah I saw the look on ya face…" Carla began with a silent laugh, "What on earth did ya think I was going to say eh?"

"Honestly?" Peter asked and when Carla nodded he looked sheepish and said, "That you didn't want me back after all… n that last night was a mistake."

"Oh darlin…" Carla said shaking her head and staring affectionately at him with a smile. "Never… this is it Peter… this is… our chance." A tear fell down Carla's cheek as she spoke and when she sniffed again she said, "Let's not waste it… promise me we won't waste it Peter."

"I promise." Peter said and with that, he and Carla simultaneously put their arms around each other.

This was it.

The beginning of their new beginning.


End file.
